MAM
Usha Intl’s seven year hitch with IPL’s Mumbai Indians
NEW DELHI: The pandemic and downturn in economic fortunes of companies can serve as a good excuse for them to lock away their coffers and pull the plug on advertising spending. Many an advertiser has resorted to that, in recent months. But consumer electronics goods firm Usha International does not belong to that tribe. Instead, it has decided to get into bed with the Mumbai Indians as an official partner once again for the seventh year in succession.
The Usha logo will be seen on the leading side caps and helmets of Mumbai Indians players and on the mat during the toss as part of the agreement. The stadiums will also have massive LED screens running across the perimeter, which will showcase brand Usha during a couple of overs of the game.
The company’s marketing team is also going the whole hog on digital. A series of activations straddling various digital platforms have been planned, including online contests on days when the Mumbai Indians team is out on the green, battling a rival. Through these contests, fans will get a chance to interact (read: meet and greet) with some of their favorite Mumbai Indian cricketers virtually. The brand will also launch a unique digital campaign, featuring select players.
Usha International head- sports initiatives &associations Komal Mehra believes that associating with IPL defines the strength of a brand during these tough times. “The current crisis gives us an opportunity to strengthen Usha’s brand salience,” she says. “The association is not just limited to creating awareness about our product portfolio but expounding Brand Usha and its ethos ‘Play.’“
Almost every product category that Usha is present in will be highlighted as part of the association – right from fabric care to climate control to heating solutions to sewing machines to water coolers to fans to cooking appliances.
“It is a great opportunity to strengthen our consumer and partner connect across categories through on-air and digital platforms,” reveals Mehra. “Contests, virtual meet and greet with select players, online polls are among some of the ways in which we intend to maximize reach across geographies.”
Mehra hopes that Mumbai Indians will go through at least 14 matches like the team has done over the years. “It is the days when the Mumbai Indians are on ground that will see the majority of the activities – like contests and polls. We are in the midst of fleshing out all the details with the MI team,” she adds. .
Even as the effort will be to create fresh content for all digital platforms to engage fans and consumers through the IPL, last year’s TVC will be given air play across all channels. It featured skipper Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah and Kieron Pollard having a great time with children at a 'learn and create' workshop with Usha sewing machines.
Mehra is quite confident that combined with the IPL, the coming festival period is going to rev up demand for its products in the home and kitchen appliances and lighting categories.
She explains: “Since work-from-home has now become the ‘new normal’ for people, it has made ‘multitaskers’ of each of us, leading to a need for products that make tasks easy while saving time as we work for home and from home. Exclusive consumer offers and finance schemes around the festive season will see a pent-up demand growing further. The festive period typically contributes almost 30-40 per cent to the annual sales for this business. Already, indicators are showing a very promising time ahead. We are confident of healthy sales in the coming quarter.”
Media observers approve. “Usha has almost become synonymous with the Mumbai Indians which has proved to be one of the top two teams in the IPL over the years,” says a senior media planner. “The company has also been further amplifying its association by running its TVCs featuring Mumbai Indians cricketers on various channels. Then this year’s initiative of focusing on digital initiatives and even a digital video campaign should get it an even greater return on its investment.”
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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