MAM
Parle Products eyes China for next phase of growth
MUMBAI: The girl with the glucose biscuit is probably the most iconic image after the Amul butter girl in India. The Parle-G girl is a part of the Parle Products family that has been in existence since 1929, founded by the Chauhan family in Vile Parle, Mumbai. Until a few years ago, as you crossed the station, you could smell the aroma of the baked biscuits wafting through the air and immediately got transported back in time to your childhood. The now-defunct factory on the premises is a great reminder of the company’s heritage. Now, Parle is gearing up to make a bigger impact in China and is planning to build a manufacturing facility in Mexico.
In 1947, when India became independent, the company launched an ad campaign, showcasing its glucose biscuit, Parle-G, as an Indian alternative to the British biscuits. The Parle brand has since become well known in India expanding to other names such as Milano, Hide & Seek, Poppins, Kismi, and Melody.
Parle-G continues to hold 20 per cent share of the Rs 25,000 crore biscuit market by value. Since 1990, the product has managed to retain 80 per cent of the glucose biscuit market while premium biscuits are worth only Rs 5000 crore in the total biscuits market.
While biscuits have always been the anchor of the company, comprising nearly 70 per cent of its Rs 10,000 crore turnover in 2017, Parle is now seeking to enhance its confectionery portfolio that generates revenue of more than Rs 1000 crore. The company has also entered into a new category of staples in the recent past.
Parle Products category head Buddha Krishna Rao says that in the last year and half, the company has seen good growth coming back to categories like biscuits, confectionary, snacks, cakes and rusks.
While the brand’s core target has always remained women and kids, a few products have a great appeal with the younger generation. Parle has over a period of time learned to customise its content and communication that cuts the ice with the audience as the market changes.
Parle is working on being relevant in the digital space. Krishna Rao says, “We are in talks with a few production houses for brand integration on digital platform for a customised series, which will be targeted at the Parle audience. The webisode series is slated to launch in late 2018.”
Parle recently rebranded one of its quintessential products, Kismi. The product now also comes in two additional Indianised flavours of rosemilk, kulfi and rajbhog along with the traditional elaichi flavourajr. Kismi, along with Melody, was once the star product for the brand that started to lose its sheen with the entry of newer products in the market.
“Although many believe it was out of the market, it just wasn’t marketed enough. In the last four years, we have felt the need to communicate for the brand and we choose to communicate with youngsters,” Krishna Rao adds. Since the product caters to the younger generation, Parle will engage in a lot of OOH, radio, college fest and other opportunities to connect with the millennials.
Madison recently launched its 2018 outlook report for adex. The report projected that ad expenditures are likely to grow at 12 per cent this year and Krishna Rao thinks the projection is a fair expectation. Parle itself will increase the ad spends by 11-12 per cent in 2018 and the majority of the ad spend will go to the digital medium.
Known for its distribution strength, Parle Products currently reaches out to 4.5 million outlets directly and also has an indirect reach of 6 million. Kaccha Mango Bite has been the best-selling candy in terms of sheer volume for the brand. Parle Products rebranded its chocolate Lacto Bite as Londonderry in 2012, which competes directly with Perfetti Van Melle’s Alpenliebe. Parle discontinued its mint-flavoured candy, Mints, in early 2017 as it was under performing.
The company exports to various markets across the globe including the US, the UK, Europe, Africa, the UAE, South East Asia and Pakistan. It is also looking at spreading its presence in China. Among all the countries Parle exports to, majority of demand comes from Africa as it is still a developing nation and Parle products are available there at economical prices. The company also has two manufacturing units set up in Africa at Cameroon and Nigeria and is already working on setting up a new unit in Mexico. Products like Parle-G, Marie, Krack Jack are locally produced in Africa and the brand wants to predominantly target the Indian diaspora living abroad. Going forward, Parle is looking at having customised products for international markets which would result in more local authentic flavours and combinations to attract local buyers.
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MAM
Nielsen launches co-viewing pilot to sharpen TV measurement
Super Bowl pilot to refine how shared TV audiences are counted
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.
Brands
Delhivery chairman Deepak Kapoor, independent director Saugata Gupta quit board
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.
MAM
Meta appoints Anuvrat Rao as APAC head of commerce partnerships
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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