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Tag: Coca-Cola

  • TAM Adex: screens and scenes spark spend surge as adland switches on big in Q1 FY 26

    TAM Adex: screens and scenes spark spend surge as adland switches on big in Q1 FY 26

    MUMBAI: India’s advertising engines have revved up in Q1 2025, with the industry riding high on the back of buzzing TV sets, scroll-stopping digital spends and billboards getting their groove back. The latest TAM AdEx Quarterly Report shows that marketers didn’t just show up, they splashed out. TV made a grand re-entry into the spotlight with a 16 per cent year-on-year growth in ad volumes compared to Q1 2024. Hindi GEC (General Entertainment Channel) ruled the roost with a whopping 22 per cent share, followed closely by Regional GEC and News genres at 15 per cent and 14 per cent respectively.

    The big screen darling of Indian homes wasn’t just fluff and reruns either top advertisers like Hindustan Unilever, Reckitt, and Coca-cola kept the spots hot, with Coca-cola returning to the top 10 TV advertisers after a brief fizz out in 2024. Among categories, Toilet Soaps and Aerated Soft Drinks bubbled up, clocking a 29 per cent and 67 per cent growth in ad volumes respectively compared to Q1 last year.

    Digital advertising clocked in an impressive 18 per cent increase in ad insertions in Q1 2025 over the previous quarter. Notably, Programmatic advertising contributed a dominant 45 per cent share of digital spots, while Google Display and Facebook together accounted for over a third of digital insertions.

    Banking and financial services made big digital strides online investment platforms, personal loans, and insurance players were aggressive spenders. But the scene-stealer? Fantasy Sports, which surged ahead as Dream11 and My11Circle banked on cricketing fervour ahead of IPL 2025.

    Out of Home (OOH) advertising made a thunderous comeback, reporting a 32 per cent jump in ad volume over Q1 2024. Transit media think metro wraps, bus backs, and airport panels saw the sharpest uptick, up by 38 per cent. FMCG, e-commerce and OTT brands led the charge, with a special mention for Amazon Prime Video’s “Mirzapur 3” teaser plastering high-traffic junctions in metro cities.

    North India continued to dominate with 39 per cent of total OOH volumes, while Tier 2 towns witnessed an OOH growth spurt of 28 per cent, driven largely by regional retail players and upcoming D2C brands eager to build street cred.

    India’s ad sector lit up Q1 2025, with TV ad volumes up 16 per cent YoY, Digital ad insertions rising 18 per cent QoQ, and OOH jumping 32 per cent YoY. FMCG led with over 25 per cent of total ad volume, while Hindi-language ads drove over 50 per cent of TV and digital impressions.  

    With IPL in full swing and festive season preparations already in the works, Q2 is expected to outdo Q1. But beyond numbers, what stands out is how brands are blending mass and personalised media placing bets on both prime-time viewership and pocket-sized scrollable moments.

    From hoardings to handhelds, the message is loud and clear: India’s adland isn’t just recovering, it’s rewiring.
     

  • Theblurr brings on Sainath Saraban as co-founder and chief creative officer

    Theblurr brings on Sainath Saraban as co-founder and chief creative officer

    MUMBAI: Theblurr has announced the appointment of Sainath Saraban as co-founder and CCO. With a legacy of bold storytelling and a globally attuned creative lens, Sainath will lead Theblurr’s creative vision across markets, helping brands cut through noise with ideas rooted in insight, craft, and outcomes.

    Sai brings over two decades of creative leadership, having worked across India, the USA, LATAM, S.E. Asia, Europe, and Africa. His portfolio spans some of the world’s most respected brands including Pepsi, Bacardi, Coca-Cola, Nike, Levi’s, Amazon, Microsoft, and Hewlett-Packard with standout work like the iconic ‘Aaj kuch Toofani karte hai’ campaign for Thums Up.

    From his early days at JWT and McCann to becoming National Creative Director at Leo Burnett India, and later founding Simple Creative Inc. and Studio Simple in the U.S., Sai has continuously bridged cultural nuance with big-brand storytelling. His work as a Global Creative Director with Hewlett-Packard demonstrates that great ideas can travel globally while staying locally relevant.

    “Sai is not just a creative leader—he’s a global storyteller who speaks the language of culture, technology, and human truth,” said Theblurr co-founder & CEO Shamsuddin Jasani. “At Theblurr, where we combine AI with human intelligence, he will be key in driving creative excellence with speed and purpose.”

    Commenting on his appointment, Sai said, “Theblurr is the kind of agency I’ve always wanted to build a creative playground fueled by technology and purpose. From campaign thinking to platform storytelling, I’m excited to create work that is culturally alive, globally scalable, and commercially impactful.”

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  • Ducktape Studios wins big at Cannes, Spikes and more in debut year

    Ducktape Studios wins big at Cannes, Spikes and more in debut year

    MUMBAI: From duct tape to Ducktape, India’s latest creative export is fixing eyeballs on global awards. Ducktape Studios may be barely a year old, but it’s already sticking out in the global ad world for all the right reasons. The Mumbai-based production house, helmed by award-winning director Raylin Valles, has stormed Cannes Lions, Adfest, Spikes Asia and the Kyoorius Awards in 2025, proving that a sharp idea with a dash of madness can punch well above its age.

    At this year’s Cannes Lions, Ducktape landed a Bronze Lion for its quirky Amazon campaign with Ogilvy India and earned a Film Craft shortlist for Dirty Money, its riotous spot for Steadfast Shredders created with Mullenlowe. The momentum continued at Adfest, where the team bagged a Silver for Film Direction and two Bronzes for Arms Deal and Hungal Driving School in collaboration with DDB.

    Meanwhile, at Spikes Asia, Arms Deal racked up a Bronze and two shortlist mentions, while the Kyoorius haul included a dazzling 4 Blue Elephants and 11 Baby Blues.

    This awards streak is no fluke. Ducktape’s cinematic chops are backed by Valles’s deep agency roots and an enviable global reel. His resume reads like a Cannes wish list Coca-Cola, Apple, Netflix, Unilever, Snickers, Ikea, Spotify, Disney+ Hotstar and his directing style ranges from stylised comedy and animated flair to high-octane action.

    “We launched Ducktape to build a space where ideas and craft could run wild,” said Valles. “A year in, we’ve worked with iconic brands, fearless agencies and some real heavyweight talent. We’ve made things that sparked memes, conversations and now, awards.”

    The studio’s sharp storytelling and slick visual language are drawing praise for being rooted in Indian culture while playing to a global stage. And while Ducktape’s tape measure of success is already long, it’s clear they’ve only just begun rolling.

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  • Tanuj Luthra elevated as chief business officer at CarDekho Group

    Tanuj Luthra elevated as chief business officer at CarDekho Group

    NEW DELHI: Auto-tech platform CarDekho Group has named Tanuj Luthra as its chief business officer, (CBO) marking a significant leadership elevation for the digital veteran with over two decades of experience in media, digital, banking, and telecom.. 

    Luthra, who joined CarDekho in 2023 as vice president – new auto, has since April 2025 (when he was named CBO) has been overseeing  the group’s entire business strategy, revenue leadership, and partnerships. His remit includes driving growth across digital ads, branded content, SaaS offerings, and white-label IPs, while accelerating the company’s digital transformation journey in the automotive space.

    A business engineer-turned-marketer with an MBA and a senior management programme from IIM Ahmedabad, Luthra has previously held key roles at Network18 and Star India, The Walt Disney Co, and Citibank. Known for cracking Rs 100-crore+ deals and pioneering brand-led content integrations, he has worked with top-tier brands including Dabur, Coca-Cola, Patanjali, and Alibaba.

    Industry insiders say Luthra’s mix of deal-making prowess, strategic acumen, and deep client relationships puts him in the driver’s seat to unlock the next chapter of growth for CarDekho.

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  • Maaza celebrates everyday wins with new AI-powered digital platform

    Maaza celebrates everyday wins with new AI-powered digital platform

    MUMBAI: In a world obsessed with big wins, Maaza just hit refresh by bottling up life’s tiniest triumphs with a mango twist. Maaza, Coca-Cola India’s beloved homegrown mango drink, is sweetening everyday life with its new digital platform, “Meri Chhoti Waali Jeet”, an AI-powered celebration of the little wins that often slip under the radar. Whether it’s nailing that elusive recipe, finishing a book you started last year, or finally fixing that leaky tap, Maaza thinks it deserves a round of applause and a sip of mango joy.

    Developed by Ogilvy India, the campaign invites users to upload a photo and describe their proud “chhoti jeet” moment. In return, the platform creates a custom Maaza-style animated video, turning mundane Mondays into mango-minted memories ripe for sharing online.

    The campaign is a juicy follow-up to Maaza’s repositioning earlier this year as a reward for small, impromptu wins, tapping into a generation that seeks joy in the now. And who better to embody that vibe than real-life couple Genelia and Riteish Deshmukh, who lead the campaign with tales of parenting highs, creative pursuits, and everyday magic.

    “For me, teaching my kids a new dance step or finally finishing a painting is the real win,” said Genelia, calling the campaign “a sweet way to celebrate victories that mean everything, even if they look like nothing.”

    Riteish agreed: “Learning a football trick or nailing a dish at home feels like a gold medal moment. Maaza gets that. It’s about lifting spirits, not just glasses.”

    Backed by OpenX from WPP, the platform reflects what Ogilvy India CCO Sukesh Nayak calls “a digital ode to the ordinary.” It’s storytelling with soul and a splash of Alphonso mango. Users have until 31 July to join the celebration and get their tiny triumphs animated into Maaza memories.

    Coca-Cola director of marketing & nutrition category, India & Southwest Asia, Ajay Konale summed it up best: “As our consumers’ digital lives evolve, Maaza evolves with them celebrating not just the big chapters, but the small footnotes that bring happiness.”

    From mini milestones to animated mementos, Maaza’s platform proves that life’s sweetest stories are often just one sip and one small win away.

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  • Adobe brings the AI thunder to Cannes with creative, campaign and customer orchestration tools

    Adobe brings the AI thunder to Cannes with creative, campaign and customer orchestration tools

    CANNES: Adobe is rewriting the playbook on customer experience with a bold tech salvo unveiled at leading advertising fest, the Cannes Lions. With a sharp focus on creativity-fuelled personalisation, Adobe’s latest updates promise to fuse generative AI, marketing tech and agentic intelligence into a potent cocktail for brands.

    Touted as the next leap from customer experience management, Adobe’s new suite under the banner of customer experience orchestration (CXO) aims to help brands deliver hyper-relevant content at scale across every consumer touchpoint. It’s a creative marketer’s dream: intuitive tools for orchestrating AI agents, conjuring short-form video ads, and even gaming the LLM algorithm to boost discoverability on AI browsers and chatbots.

    ““Delivering one-to-one personalization at scale demands a powerful fusion of creativity, marketing and AI,” said Adobe president digital experience business Anil Chakravarthy. “We are pioneering innovations through Adobe’s AI platform that enable teams to craft the most compelling and relevant customer experiences, helping businesses drive impact and seize this enormous opportunity.”

    Among the star tools:

    * GenStudio for Performance Marketing slashes campaign creation time with generative AI support for video, display, email, and more.

    * Firefly Services offers APIs for 3D images, avatars, and AI-powered video editing with drag-and-drop simplicity.

    * LLM Optimizer is Adobe’s answer to the AI content visibility race, giving marketers an edge in GenAI search results.

    Major brands—from Coca-Cola and Estée Lauder to Publicis and Prudential—are already plugged into Adobe’s AI stack, reporting sharper engagement, higher conversion, and serious time savings
    .
    Also live is the Adobe experience platform agent orchestrator, enabling brands to build and manage intelligent AI agents—like the new data insights agent and product support agent—taking the grunt work out of analytics and user support.

    As Cannes Lions toasts the creative elite, Adobe makes its case clear: in the era of AI-fuelled brand building, experience is everything—and the hotshop is betting big on orchestrating every pixel of it.

  • Brand new day as Epic Brand Map goes global with India as launchpad

    Brand new day as Epic Brand Map goes global with India as launchpad

     MUMBAI: What’s in a brand? Quite a lot, if you ask the folks at the newly minted Epic Brand Institute. The Epic Brand Institute (EBI) has officially stepped onto the global stage with the public launch of its flagship framework the Epic Brand Map (EBM), a system designed to bring Evocativeness, Precision, Insight and Clarity (yes, that’s EPIC) to the chaotic world of brand-building.

    Already battle-tested by corporate heavyweights like the Tata Group, Aditya Birla Group, Reliance, Mahindra, HCL, and international giants like Coca-cola, Medtronic, Sun Life Financial, Mars, Walmart and Nokia, the framework is finally being made available to the wider world of founders, marketers, consultants and creatives.

    Created by global brand strategist Saurabh Uboweja, also the founder of BOD Consulting, the EBM will now form the core of EBI’s in-person training cohorts. The first will be hosted in New Delhi from 9–11 June 2025 at the India Habitat Centre, and a second will follow in Dubai from 19–21 September 2025.

    “We’re launching not just a course, but a global movement,” said Uboweja. “After years of working behind the scenes with some of the biggest names in business, we’re now opening the EPIC Brand Map to a new generation of brand-led business builders.”

    The inaugural Delhi edition will be an intimate affair, limited to 30 handpicked founders and practitioners looking to sharpen their brand-building acumen. Dubai, meanwhile, is set to attract a mix of Middle East and South Asian brand professionals hoping to join the ranks of EPIC strategists.

    With storytelling getting louder, attention spans shrinking, and differentiation harder than ever, EBI’s pitch is simple stop winging it and start mapping it. The message is clear: if your brand strategy feels like a game of darts in the dark, it might be time to go EPIC.

  • Pulse on point as DS Group proves culture is the sweetest strategy

    Pulse on point as DS Group proves culture is the sweetest strategy

    MUMBAI: When a candy meant for grown-ups causes a social media frenzy and movie stars post about it for free, you know you’ve struck marketing gold. That’s precisely what DS Group sr. vice president of corporate marketing Rajeev Jain laid out in his eye-opening session at Goa Fest 2025 titled ‘Cultural Marketing Can Be a Winner: Pulse Candy a Case Study’.

    Jain opened with a powerful quote from CK Prahalad, “While it is true that multinationals will change emerging markets forever, the reverse is also true.” And Pulse, it turns out, is a case of the latter, an unapologetically Indian brand that rewrote the rules of candy marketing.

    The secret sauce? Culture. Not just flavours, but deep-seated values and norms. Jain drew parallels from around the globe: how Coca-Cola supported Saudi women driving under its “Keys of Change” campaign, or how Nescafé cracked Japan by first selling coffee-flavoured toffees to build a taste habit among kids who grew into coffee-loving adults.

    Pulse did something equally audacious back home.

    Backed by two years of intense R&D, Pulse launched a centre-filled candy that catered to Indian palates think tang, spice, and chatpata chaos. It wasn’t your average sweet treat. It was a nostalgia bomb, a street-side snack, and a meme-worthy munch all rolled into one.

    The brand boldly went where few dare: marketing candy to adults. “Why should kids have all the fun?” wasn’t just a slogan, it was a war cry. And consumers responded with their thumbs generating a flood of user-generated content without a rupee spent on influencer tie-ups.

    Case in point? Disha Patani posting about Pulse on her own. “That’s when we knew we weren’t just in the candy business,” said Jain. “We were in the cultural relevance business.”

    The talk underscored a central truth: great cultural marketing isn’t loud, it’s resonant. Pulse didn’t follow trends; it tapped into India’s taste DNA. The result? A product that felt tailor-made for the local market yet had the swagger of a global disruptor.

    In a world flooded with algorithm-driven campaigns and AI-generated creatives, Pulse’s story is refreshingly analogue, it’s about listening before selling, and tapping into what people crave emotionally, not just gastronomically.

    At a fest packed with tech talk and future-forward buzzwords, Jain’s candy-coated case study reminded everyone that flavour still wins when it hits the culture nerve just right.

  • Publicis steals Coca-Cola’s $800 North American media crown from WPP

    Publicis steals Coca-Cola’s $800 North American media crown from WPP

    MUMBAI: Publicis Groupe has pinched Coca-Cola’s lucrative North American media account from WPP following a hush-hush competitive review, industry sources confirmed yesterday.

    The French advertising giant will now handle Coca-Cola’s media planning and buying across the United States and Canada, with the business estimated to be worth a fizzy  $800 million  in annual billings.

    The soft drinks behemoth conducted the review under tight wraps, with only WPP and Publicis invited to participate in what insiders describe as a “closed door beauty contest” between the two holding companies.

    For Publicis, the win represents sweet revenge after finishing as runner-up in 2021 when WPP scooped Coca-Cola’s global integrated business. Now, just three and a half years later, the tables have turned in North America.

    CocaCola

    The account covers media planning and buying for Coca-Cola’s extensive portfolio of over 200 brands, including its flagship cola, Sprite, Fanta, and various sports drinks, juices, and plant-based beverages.
    Despite the sting of losing North America, WPP will continue to serve as Coca-Cola’s primary global partner, handling media duties across the rest of the world and maintaining responsibility for creative work globally through its bespoke Open X agency setup.

    Coca-Cola spent an estimated $1.8 billion on US advertising in 2023, according to Ad Age Datacenter, with $621 million specifically on measured media. Globally, the beverage giant splashed out $5.15 billion on advertising in 2024, up from  $5 billion the previous year.

    In a statement crafted to soothe WPP’s bruised ego, Coca-Cola emphasised that “WPP is the only global marketing partner of The Coca-Cola Co,” describing Publicis merely as a “complementary partner for its US and Canada media business.”

    “The Coca-Cola Co is committed to the ongoing transformation of its marketing model to ensure the company is best positioned to connect with the evolving consumer marketplace around the world,” the statement continued, adding that “no other changes are expected, and Coca-Cola is in an advanced stage in the process of renewing its global partnership with WPP.”

     Coca-Cola globall chief market ing officer  Manolo Arroyoa,praised WPP’s contribution, highlighting achievements including “Coke being named Creative Brand of the Year at the Cannes Lions in 2024.”

    The Coca-Cola win continues Publicis’ remarkable run of form in the media pitch circuit, coming hot on the heels of major account victories with Pfizer and Hershey’s. This stellar performance prompted the holding company to upgrade its earnings guidance twice during 2024.

    Last year, Publicis overtook WPP as the world’s largest agency group by revenue, marking a dramatic shift in the industry’s power balance. The addition of Coca-Cola’s North American media business will only cement that position.

    The handover is expected to take place in the coming months.

  • Viraj Chouhan hops onto RP-Sanjiv Goenka group in corporate affairs role

    Viraj Chouhan hops onto RP-Sanjiv Goenka group in corporate affairs role

    MUMBAI: In a splashy move that coincides with the festival of colours, corporate affairs  veteran Viraj Chouhan has jumped ship from PepsiCo to join the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group as its group corporate affairs officer. The announcement, dripping with Holi metaphors, marks the end of Chouhan’s nearly six-year innings with the fizzy drinks giant.

    “Just as Holi symbolises renewal, this opportunity marks a vibrant new chapter,” gushed Chouhan in a LinkedIn post.

    The alumnus of Nagpur University brings hefty credentials to the table, having previously served as vice president corporate affairs for PepsiCo’s APAC region. His CV reads like a who’s who of corporate India, with stints as chief communications officer at Ola and executive director of corporate communications at MTS India.
    Chouhan cut his corporate affairs and communications teeth during a five-year spell at Coca-Cola before switching allegiance to arch-rival PepsiCo. 

    The RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, which Chouhan now represents, boasts an asset base of US $7 billion (approximately Rs 58,000 crore) and revenue of US $4 billion (Rs 33,000 crore). The conglomerate has its fingers in numerous pies, from power and FMCG to retail and IT.

    Sports enthusiasts might recognise RPSG as the owner of IPL team Lucknow Super Giants and football club Mohun Bagan—giving Chouhan plenty of metaphorical playing fields for his corporate messaging.