MAM

Surrogate liquor advertising: Time for change?

Published

8 years ago

October 2, 2017

MUMBAI: Remember the famous ‘‘Oh la la la la…Le O’’ jingle by Kingfisher for its calendar, the “No.1 Yaari” catchphrase by McDowell’s for its club soda or the “Men will be men,” a 19-year old prominent tagline for Seagram’s Imperial Blue CDs?

What do all of these brands have in common? A lot, and nothing!

While all these brands are prominently into selling liquor and spirits, they position and market themselves for the products/services that contribute insignificantly to their sales.

And, why is that you ask?

Well, since there is a ban on advertising alcohol, tobacco and cigarettes in India, liquor companies leverage the power of surrogate advertising to convey their brand identity/message.

First things first! Let’s understand surrogate advertising to begin with and its prominence in the Indian advertising industry. Surrogate advertising is a form of advertising which is used to promote banned products, such as cigarettes and alcohol, in the guise of another product.

India has held a strong stance on the ban of advertising tobacco and liquor products on all media platforms since 1995. The ban was enforced after extensive research from the Indian ministry of health found that cigarettes and liquor have adverse effect on a person’s health.

However, the increase in population saw the sales of tobacco and liquor increase at an exponential rate. Therefore, companies were forced to seek alternative means of advertising, which lead to the eventual creation of surrogate advertising in India, and that is why we see major liquor brands promoting and advertising themselves for their club sodas, mineral water, CDs or playing cards to hammer the brand name into the heads of consumers.

public://63yqljiy.jpg Bagpiper was one of the earliest brands that took to surrogate advertising. The brand introduced the slogan of “Khoob jamega rang jab mil bhaitenge teen yaar. Aap, main aur Bagpiper” in 1993 and got the-then famous Bollywood celebrities such as Dharmendra, Jackie Shroff and others to feature in its ‘soda’ campaigns.

Today, India is the third largest liquor market in the world, with an overall retail market size of US$ 35 billion per annum. The annual consumption rate has been increasing steadily over the past six years, and stands at 8.9 per cent as of 2017.

But how has the marketing and advertising evolved for such brands with time?

Earlier, marketing for these brands involved largely print and television where they communicated a lifestyle and an attitude but consumers today have multiple personalities, and are more evolved, resulting in brands using digital and social media platforms in a big way to communicate and be in tune with the audience.

“Today, it’s the age of everyday heroes rather than mega celebrities and alcoholic brands and tobacco brands are increasingly leveraging this trend,” says WATConsult AVP – strategy and account planning Sabiha Khan. “Additionally, sponsorship of events was used earlier to reach the mass audience, but now brands are directing energies towards acquiring audiences via targeted messages online.”

United Breweries Limited (UBL), which manufactures India’s most loved Kingfisher beer, controls 60 per cent of the total manufacturing capacity for beer in India and is the market leader with the national market share in excess of 50 per cent; which explains the company’s major investments and association with various events, sports and other entities.

Marketing head Samar Singh Sheikhawat affirms that the marketing spends in the industry for spirits and beer have gone up because all players are leveraging major platforms to connect with the consumer but television still works best since it creates a better chance of brand visibility and salience. UBL gets its biggest revenue from sponsorships and associations with various events and gigs and spends typically about six to seven per cent of its net revenues on marketing in a year.

While surrogate advertising may work for leading brands that have been in the Indian market for years and have big bucks to spend on advertising, sponsoring events, fashion tours and sports, it is the new entrants and smaller players who run the risk of missing out on brand communication and visibility.

“It is a challenge for the new entrants and the agencies because, as a new brand, they first have to create brand awareness, inform about the product details, flavour, taste and brand ethos and spirit which they want to convey to the consumers. A new player will not be able to communicate well with surrogate and takes years to build the brand image — first through word of mouth promotion,” adds iProspect India branch head – south Krishna Kumar Revanur.

Surrogacy has come around in a big way to support promotion of liquor brands but it has its own diluted drawback. You would not want to market something as prominent as Blender’s Pride just for its fashion tour or Royal Challenge as merely bottled water. The core challenge for agencies while creating a campaign for such brands lies in not damaging the brand image and managing to promote it to the right audience.

Dentsu Webchutney creative strategist — general management Pranav Sabhaney notes, “No creative person ever wants to be told that this is the boundary that you have to work around but it is an interesting challenge for the creatives as they know they have to work with restrictions yet find the best communication possible. The constraint might irritate creatives at some point as spirits is an interesting sector to work on but they don’t have an opportunity to do anything.”

Giving a brand’s point of view, Sheikhawat adds, “It is complex and challenging since we are not allowed to display the product, mention the word liquor or beer or show consumption in the campaign, and that is the reason why agencies that work on such products have been agencies that work with those brands for the last 20-25 years. It’s a very complex, hard task and takes a lot of money to build brand imagery in India as opposed to the other parts of the world.”

Is there a need for the rules to be more accommodating and liberal so that brands can promote and advertise the products in a better way?

With an opinion that adults should be given the freedom to be adults and to make their own choices, Publicis Worldwide managing director and chief creative officer Bobby Pawar says: “The fake rules and regulations by the government for the liquor industry are not great, and while I do understand that when you advertise these products freely, underage people will get to see it but the government needs to find a way around it. It is sheer hypocrisy of the government which states that you can sell liquor and build your brand but you can’t advertise it.”

Adding on to Pawar’s point, Krishna Kumar mentions: “If the government allows the product to be sold in the country but not advertise it, that means the government is following dual standards.

United Breweries spends 20 per cent of its marketing budget on television and a mere 10 per cent on digital but that is changing, and the company now has a separate team assigned for digital along with a separate digital agency on board. The company leverages all social media and digital platforms while also creating user-generated content. “The audience today is not interested in brand advertising or brand stories but are only interested in stories that suit their line of thinking, and are looking for content and narratives that involve them,” concludes Sheikhawat.

Whether the ban on displaying alcoholic products will ever be lifted or not is a story for another day but brands and agencies do know how to work around the restrictions and create some of the most memorable ads that click with the audience right away.

McDowell’s No.1 soda TVC:

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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

4 weeks 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

4 weeks 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.

MAM

Washington Post CEO exits abruptly after newsroom cuts spark backlash

Leadership change follows layoffs, protests and a bruising battle over trust.

Published

4 weeks ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: When the presses are rolling but patience runs out, even the editor’s chair isn’t safe. The Washington Post announced on Saturday that its chief executive and publisher Will Lewis is stepping down with immediate effect, bringing a sudden end to a turbulent two-year tenure marked by financial strain, newsroom unrest and public backlash.

Lewis’s exit comes just days after the Bezos-owned newspaper announced sweeping job cuts that triggered protests outside its Washington headquarters and a wave of anger from readers and staff. While newspapers across the US are grappling with shrinking revenues and digital disruption, Lewis’s leadership had increasingly come under fire for how those pressures were handled.

The Post confirmed that Jeff D’Onofrio, a former Tumblr CEO who joined the organisation last year as chief financial officer, has taken over as CEO and publisher, effective immediately. In an email to staff, later shared by reporters on social media, Lewis said it was “the right time for me to step aside.”

The leadership change follows the announcement of large-scale redundancies earlier this week. While the Post did not officially confirm numbers, The New York Times reported that around 300 of the paper’s roughly 800 journalists were laid off. Entire teams were dismantled, including the Post’s Middle East bureau and its Kyiv-based correspondent covering the war in Ukraine.

Sports, graphics and local reporting were sharply reduced, and the paper’s daily podcast, Post Reports, was suspended. On Thursday, hundreds of journalists and supporters gathered outside the Post’s downtown office in protest, calling the cuts a blow to public-interest journalism.

Former executive editor Marty Baron described the moment as “among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organisations.”

Lewis defended his record in his farewell note, saying “difficult decisions” were taken to secure the paper’s long-term future and protect its ability to publish “high-quality nonpartisan news”. But his tenure coincided with growing scrutiny of editorial independence at the Post.

Owner Jeff Bezos faced criticism for reining in the paper’s traditionally liberal editorial page and blocking an endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris ahead of the 2024 US election. The move was widely seen as breaking the long-standing firewall between ownership and editorial decision-making.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, around 250,000 digital subscribers cancelled their subscriptions after the paper declined to endorse Harris. The Post reportedly lost about $100 million in 2024 as advertising and subscription revenues slid.

While the wider newspaper industry continues to battle declining print advertising and the pull of social media, some national titles have stabilised. Rivals such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have managed to build sustainable digital businesses, a turnaround that has so far eluded the Post despite its billionaire backing.

As Jeff D’Onofrio steps into the role, the challenge is stark, restore confidence inside the newsroom, win back readers who walked away, and prove that one of America’s most storied newspapers can still find its footing in a brutally competitive media landscape.