Brands

How CarDekho is zooming ahead amid Covid2019 pandemic

Published

5 years ago

November 10, 2020

NEW DELHI: CarDekho, the flagship site of GirnarSoft, is considered a leader in digitising the auto ecosystem in India. It works directly with more than eight car and motorcycle manufacturers, and accounts for 15-30 per cent of their combined annual sales.

While the Covid2019 pandemic may have brought the auto industry to a halt, CarDekho in the interim has witnessed a tremendous surge in customer traffic on its website and app. As per Comscore data, the brand has moved up from 13M UU in July to 15M UU in August, which indicates that customers are depending on personal mobility more than ever before.

In a one-to-one discussion, CarDekho CMO Gaurav Mehta explained that when the pandemic struck, the business was disrupted badly, resulting in zero car sales in the months of April and May. This, however, didn’t mean the company sat around twiddling its thumbs, rather it tackled the problem at hand with a two-pronged approach. “We worked on two factors, first to work with dealers and provide them with health insurance. Second, to introduce home inspection so that customers don’t come to CarDekho Gaadi stores owing to the safety concerns,” he said.

Due to Covid2019, personal mobility has seen a boost; customers are looking to buy their own vehicle because of the virus risk. He explained, “In June we started to see traffic coming back. We used to be around 36-37 million unique users on a monthly basis in March. In April, it went down to 18 million. In May, it bounced back to 27 million. By June we recovered and went back to the normal traffic. Compared to September, the number now is 51 million unique users on a monthly basis.”

The reason behind the spike, claimed Mehta, is many new users coming online to shop for cars and motorcycles. In fact, even users from tier-2 & tier-3 markets are searching for the latest motorcycle. “The segments that have recovered faster than the others is used cars in the two to four lakh range. Meanwhile, entry-level hatchback segment in the two-five lakh range in new cars is also doing well. The two-wheeler section has recovered to 80-85 per cent.”

Further breaking down these traffic figures, he said that 15 per cent of the site traffic comes from the website whereas 85 per cent comes from mobile platform. In mobiles also, 50-66 per cent comes from website and 30-35 per cent comes from apps.

The brand is also expanding in a big way. It recently launched its online insurance portal InsuranceDekho.com offering services in motor and health insurance. Apart from this, CarDekho has decided to open 50 offline stores in the country within the next six months given the rising demand for used cars. The firm is working on franchise models and the cars sold through these stores will be certified by the company and a warranty will also be provided.

Asked about how the brand utilises its marketing budget across different mediums, Mehta said traditionally, the business has relied on publishing editorial content on a daily basis. Content marketing is something the automobile platform does all year round, with SEO being a core part of it. After this, the focus is on paid marketing. “Eventually, we started focusing on brand marketing and working on different ideas of campaigns to reach people. We are seeing the results also; due to the campaign execution the new users went up by 90 per cent and 110 percent respectively for CarDekho and BikeDekho.”

The company is also dabbling in advertising on TV, though with limited scope and targeted campaigns. “They’re not like a huge campaign where you take up big properties like IPL. We invest in the media mix and then study to understand which medium drives the most amount of growth for us. We are very specific on brand investments because we invest in areas that work for the business. The performance marketing has gone down a lot and brand content marketing is something that we have found very good success in and we're trying to be more aggressive on that,” elaborated Mehta.

CarDekho recently announced its latest campaign for CarDekho Gaadi Store under the theme Karo India Forward, Karo Gaadi Forward with brand ambassadors Rahul Dravid and Mahesh Babu. The campaign highlights how easy it is to sell a used car, sitting at your home, office, or anywhere. It further stresses the thought of moving ahead in life despite all odds created by the pandemic.

In a similar fashion, Mehta projects the ongoing festive season will help the auto industry overcome the tribulations of the last few months. “Car segments like used car, entry-level and two-wheelers will perform well. The financial health of the country is improving gradually. With the fact that personal mobility would be there, I think the festive season will be better than what was forecasted a few months back. Looking at the traffic on the site, it will be a good Diwali for the automobile sector. However, manufacturers are still facing production and supply chain issues, which is holding up the industry somewhat.”

Over the years, the brand has proved itself a bankable property, having raised funds from marquee investors like Sequoia India, Hillhouse Capital (formerly known as Google Capital), HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Times Internet, Trifecta, and Ratan Tata. And from here on out too, CarDekho hopes to keep zooming ahead, a few bumps in the road notwithstanding.

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Brands

Netflix India names Rekha Rane director of films and series marketing

Streaming giant bets on a seasoned marketer who helped build Amazon and Netflix into household names

Published

7 days ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: Netflix has put a proven brand builder at the helm of its films and series marketing in India, naming Rekha Rane as director in a move that signals sharper focus on audience growth and cultural cut-through in one of its most hotly contested markets.

Rane steps into the role after seven years at Netflix, where she has quietly shaped how the platform sells stories to India. Her latest promotion, effective February 2026, crowns a run that spans brand, slate and product marketing across originals, licensed content and new verticals such as games.

A strategic marketing and communications professional with roughly 15 years’ experience, Rane has spent much of her career building technology-led consumer businesses and new categories, notably e-commerce and subscription video on demand. She was part of the early push that introduced Amazon.in, Prime Video and Netflix to Indian homes, then helped turn them into everyday brands.

At Netflix, she most recently served as head of brand and slate marketing for India from March 2024 to February 2026, leading teams across media and marketing for global and local content portfolios. Before that, as manager for original films and series marketing, she led IP creation and go-to-market strategy for titles including Guns and Gulaabs, Kaala Paani, The Railway Men* and The Great Indian Kapil Show, spanning both binge and weekly-release formats.

Her earlier Netflix roles covered product discovery and promotion in India and integrated campaign strategy to drive conversations around the content slate, product awareness and brand-equity metrics.

Before Netflix, Rane logged more than three years at Amazon in brand marketing roles in Bengaluru. There she handled national and regional campaigns for Amazon.in, worked on customer assistance programmes in growth geographies and contributed to the go-to-market strategy for the launch of Prime Video India.

Her career began well away from streaming. At Reliance Brands in Mumbai, she worked on retail marketing for Diesel and Superdry. A stint at Leo Burnett saw her work on primary research for P&G Tide, mapping Indian shoppers’ paths to purchase. Earlier still, at Orange in the United Kingdom, she rose from sales assistant to store manager, running a team and owning monthly P&L for a retail outlet.

The arc is telling. As global streamers fight for attention in a crowded Indian market, executives who understand both mass retail behaviour and digital habit-building are prized. Rane’s career sits at that intersection.

For Netflix, the bet is simple: in a market spoilt for choice, sharp marketing can still tilt the screen. And with Rane now leading the charge, the streamer is signalling it wants not just viewers, but fandom.

Brands

Orient Beverages pops the fizz with steady Q3 gains and rising profits

Kolkata-based beverage maker reports stronger revenues and profits for December quarter.

Published

7 days ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: A fizzy quarter with a steady aftertaste that’s how Orient Beverages Limited, the company that manufactures and distributes packaged drinking water under the brand name Bisleri closed the December 2025 period, as the Kolkata-based drinks maker reported improved revenues and a healthy rise in profits, signalling operational stability in a competitive beverage market.

For the quarter ended December 31, 2025, Orient Beverages posted standalone revenue from operations of Rs 39.98 crore, up from Rs 36.42 crore in the previous quarter and Rs 33.53 crore in the same quarter last year. Total income for the quarter stood at Rs 42.24 crore, reflecting consistent demand and stable pricing across its beverage portfolio.

Profit before tax for the quarter came in at Rs 3.47 crore, a sharp improvement from Rs 1.31 crore in the September quarter and Rs 0.39 crore a year ago. After accounting for tax expenses of Rs 0.79 crore, the company reported a net profit of Rs 2.68 crore, nearly three times the Rs 0.99 crore recorded in the preceding quarter.

On a nine-month basis, the momentum remained intact. Revenue from operations for the period ended December 31, 2025 rose to Rs 117.66 crore, compared with Rs 106.95 crore in the corresponding period last year. Net profit for the nine months climbed to Rs 5.51 crore, more than double the Rs 2.18 crore reported in the same period of the previous financial year.

The consolidated numbers told a similar story. For the December quarter, consolidated revenue from operations stood at Rs 45.06 crore, while profit after tax came in at Rs 2.06 crore. For the nine-month period, consolidated revenue touched Rs 133.57 crore, with net profit of Rs 4.49 crore, underscoring the group’s improving profitability trajectory.

Operating expenses remained largely controlled, with cost of materials, employee benefits and other expenses broadly aligned with revenue growth. The company continued to operate within a single reportable segment beverages simplifying its cost structure and reporting framework.

The unaudited financial results were reviewed by the Audit Committee and approved by the Board of Directors at its meeting held on 7 February 2026. Statutory auditors carried out a limited review and reported no material misstatements in the results.

In a market where margins are often squeezed by input costs and competition, Orient Beverages’ latest numbers suggest the company has found a reliable rhythm not explosive, but steady enough to keep the fizz alive.

Brands

BCCL profit jumps 53 per cent in FY25 as tax bill shrinks

Revenue rises 4.3 per cent to Rs 10,209.33 crore while deferred tax gain lifts bottom line sharply

Published

7 days ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

NEW DELHI: Bennett, Coleman and Company (BCCL) has posted a sparkling set of financial results for the year ended 31 March 2025, proving that there is still plenty of ink and gold left in the ledger.

Revenue from operations climbed a steady 4.3 per cent, reaching Rs 10,209.33 crore compared to Rs 9,786.44 crore the previous year. When you sprinkle in other income, which rose 8.9 per cent to Rs 949.36 crore, the total income for the media behemoth hit a healthy Rs 11,158.69 crore.

While the income grew at a modest pace, the bottom line tells a far more dramatic story. The real headline is the 53 per cent surge in annual profit. How did they pull off such a feat? While Profit Before Tax (PBT) saw a gentle nudge upward of 2.7 per cent to Rs 1,610.00 crore, it was a vanishing act by the taxman that really did the trick.

Total tax expenses plummeted by 32.4 per cent, dropping from Rs 468.76 crore down to Rs 316.97 crore. This was largely thanks to a swing in deferred tax, moving from an expense of Rs 156.02 crore in FY24 to a benefit of Rs 39.44 crore this year.

Total income rose from Rs 10,658.55 crore in FY24 to Rs 11,158.69 crore in FY25, marking a 4.7 per cent increase. Total expenses grew at a slower pace, up 3.0 per cent from Rs 9,306.06 crore to Rs 9,581.45 crore. Profit before tax inched up 2.7 per cent, moving from Rs 1,567.02 crore to Rs 1,610.00 crore. However, the standout figure was net profit, which jumped sharply by 53.0 per cent, climbing from Rs 1,042.03 crore in FY24 to Rs 1,594.73 crore in FY25.

Despite the rising costs of doing business across the globe, BCCL kept a tight grip on the purse strings. Total expenses rose by just 3.0 per cent to Rs 9,581.45 crore. By keeping costs lower than the rate of income growth, the company ensured that the final figure, a net profit of Rs 1,594.73 crore, was nothing short of a front-page sensation.

In a world of shifting digital tides, it seems the BCCL ship is not just steady, but sailing into significantly wealthier waters.