MUMBAI: Dushyant Panda has been elevated to vice president, marketing at Razorpay, while also taking the reins of the fintech giant’s SME business P&L. Known for blending brand-building brilliance with business acumen, Panda will now spearhead central marketing and drive growth across Razorpay’s core verticals—including Payments, POS, Engage, and Cross Border.
In his new role, Panda wears multiple hats: brand custodian across units, growth leader for digital and performance marketing, and business builder with full ownership of SME revenues. He now commands the entire product marketing and creative ecosystem, bringing scale, swagger and sharp positioning to every Razorpay launch.
Before this, he served as senior director, leading marketing for payments and the SME vertical. Panda joined Razorpay in 2021, quickly climbing the ranks from director of emerging business to now owning the company’s full-stack growth engine.
A NestAway veteran and Kadence research alumnus, Panda began his career decoding consumer insights in southeast Asia. Now, with Razorpay’s rocket ship under his command, he’s out to turn marketing into a “true growth engine”—in his own words, “why settle for just one challenge?”
The industry will be watching as Panda attempts to do what marketers rarely get to—run both the story and the store.
NEW DELHI: Every individual wants to look good and smell good when they walk out of their homes and are in the vicinity of other people. It leaves a strong impression among others about their personality and helps create a strong recall about them. While there is a huge market for apparel to satiate consumer demand, there is an equally wide range of products – colognes, deodorants, and perfumes – available in the latter category to help people smell good when they are out.
The fragrance category in India was estimated at Rs 66.58 billion, as per a Business Wire report, and is expected to touch Rs 139.44 billion by 2024. The largest share of the segment was held by deodorants (60.65 per cent), followed by perfumes (32.14 per cent). This category includes several homegrown and international brands – Fogg, Nivea, Engage, Park Avenue, Axe, Wild Stone, Denver, that are vying for a bigger slice of the sales pie.
Interestingly, most of these brands started with deodorants and created a strong top-of-the-mind recall before entering into the perfume category. They relied on heavy advertising to create this impact and have leveraged the halo impact of their brand into the perfume category.
Now, in its first foray into the unisex perfume category, Wild Stone – a well-known male grooming-personal care brand from the house of Mcnroe consumer products – has launched ‘Sense’, a one-of-a-kind fragrance as an ode to visually challenged people.
It is meant to celebrate the sense of smell as a great unifier experience as felt by both visually challenged as well as sighted individuals. It is not unusual that in the absence of visual information, the brain rewires itself to enhance other senses, like the sense of smell.
The thought behind Sense is to present a unique offering which represents an idea of a positive and happy world as perceived by every individual, whether by seeing or by smelling and feeling it.
Mcnroe joined hands with Givaudan (the world’s largest company in the flavour and fragrance industries) to create ‘Sense’ – a fragrance that celebrates the power of perfume to evoke strong and emotional reactions, memories and associations.
Mcnroe Consumers Product head – business development Ankit Daga said, “We are living in an unprecedented time today which the world has never witnessed. In times like these, people are looking for positivity and hope, and we thought it made sense to launch ‘Wild Stone Sense’ as a product that cuts across all barriers of sight and unifies every individual in our sense of smell. We are grateful to Givaudan for their help and expertise in creating this wonderful fragrance for a wonderful cause. Itu Chaudhuri Design (ICD) has done a fabulous job by strategising and creating a pack that speaks for the Sense campaign. What makes this initiative special is that Sense has been co-created with some gifted visually challenged individuals from NGO Saksham as a fragrance that is a testimony to positivity and hope in today’s time”.
The brand believes that perfumes are a language of their own; they speak of different memories, a symphony of experience which are felt and experienced in different ways by every individual, making it unique but universal in its nature. Wild Stone Sense is a fragrance offering made to celebrate the universal language of smell. Through this association, Wild Stone will help towards the welfare and upliftment of the visually challenged community as proceeds from the sales will be donated.
The product’s packaging of rainbow-inspired colours indicates the joyous nature of life. The branding is written in Braille for use and appreciation by the visually challenged consumers.
“Wild Stone, through the unique fragrance, not only aims at imparting a sense of optimism and happiness to the wearer but also a sense of responsibility and pride to the buyer for having contributed to the noble cause of the welfare of the visually challenged. The packaging is unique in itself – it is, in fact, the first-of-its-kind Braille typography on a perfume bottle in India,” added Daga.
In the past, the brand has promoted its perfume products with an extremely impactful campaign – ‘Log toh notice karenge’. Focused on showcasing the cons of smelling good, the film’s about a party where a boss is introducing his employees to his daughter. The boss also happens to notice one particular employee and compliments him on his perfume. The scene then shifts to the next day morning where the boss goes to wake his daughter up. As he hugs her, he smells the same scent on her as he did on his employee. The spot ends with the message ‘Log toh notice karenge’.
Wild Stone had released several films as part of the campaign to build upon the idea and create buzz for its perfumes and connect with audiences.
MUMBAI: Fragrance brand Engage, from the house of ITC, has unveiled its first range of Eau de Parfum.
Engage has taken a bold step forward to redefine fragrance concepts inspired by the traditional philosophy of duality. Based on the principle that all things exist in contradictory opposites, Engage presents ‘Yin’ for the Engage Man and ‘Yang’ for the Engage Woman.
In a new television commercial for Engage Eau De parfum, the brand elucidates the dichotomy of love and the role of fragrances in creating passionate memories. The film directed by Whitelight film’s Subir Chatterjee and Namita Roy Ghose explores the arguments and friction that is inevitable in any romance but illustrates the core of intense love that binds one another with the promise of a new beginning because love will always find a way.
The TVC opens with a couple in the middle of an intense, passionate fight. The famous Leonard Cohen song ‘Dance me to the end of love’ serves as the perfect score for the crisp storytelling of separation and reuniting in an energetic interplay of Yin and Yang.
The philosophy defines that two opposites attract and complement each other. The symbol illustrates that each at its core has an element of the other. Designed as two halves, the glass perfume bottles and the packaging design also echo the concept of duality.
J Walter Thompson SVP and national creative director Tista Sen says, “Yin and Yang embody the very paradox of love. As poignant as a lovers’ quarrel, it is the perfume that helps the reconciliation. With a haunting music track and visual imagery that brings home the utter pain and longing of a lover’s anguish, the new range of EDP is the ultimate tribute in what brings lovers together. ‘Because love will always find a way’ captures the intensity, passion and opposing views of a young relationship with symbolism and fluidity that Engage the brand has come to epitomise with perfection.”
Engage Eau De Parfum is the most recent launch in the Engage portfolio. Available in four fragrances – Yin for Engage Man, Yang for Engage Woman, Femme and Homme, the fragrances are priced at Rs 499 for a 90 ml bottle.
MUMBAI: Engage, a fragrance brand, has unveiled a new thematic campaign to introduce its range of pure intense perfume sprays for men and women. In this new television commercial, Engage reflects on its brand core to capture the intrigue and excitement of couples in love, engaging in playful chemistry. It highlights the pulse points in the body that are best for spritzing and make the fragrance last longer.
The film directed by Whitelight Films’ Subir Chatterjee, explores an important aspect of desire. The TVC opens with a woman standing in front of a mirror. She picks up a bottle of Engage perfume and sprays a little on the nape of her neck. Instantly, a man’s reflection appears in the mirror. He gently places a kiss on her neck where she sprayed. But as she turns to look at him she realizes that she is fantasizing. Fascinated, she sprays again on the other side of her neck and he is magically back again, planting another deeper kiss. She is now naughtily enjoying the game and sprays Engage on her wrist and eagerly looks in the mirror. This time he entwines his fingers with hers and raises it to his lips and she simply tilts her head enjoying the moment.
Meanwhile in the man’s room, Engage kindles a similar fantasy of playful romance. As Engage envelops him in its fragrance, the woman’s hands glide over him. They can’t wait to bring the fantasy alive and are excited to see each other. The film is a refreshing new take on playful chemistry and beautifully captures desire in courtship, romance and sensuality that the fragrance evokes. Where do you want to be kissed?
J. Walter Thompson SVP & NCD Tista Sen said, “The new communication focusses on the longing and yearning that perfume can evoke in romance. Imagination and fantasy is captured through young lovers who cannot wait to meet. Perfume on the pulse points heightens ‘playful chemistry’ which is the raison d’être of the brand and brings lovers together through a powerful line that says it all: where do you want to be kissed?
When a fragrance is applied on the pulse points, the fragrance tends to diffuse more due to the heat of the blood on the pulse points such as wrists, ankles, belly button, behind the ears, neck, etc. Fragrance is a volatile blend and warmer parts of the body will make the notes diffuse as well as form an intense trail wherever you go. Engage Perfume Sprays with heart and base notes of amber, wood and musk tend to linger on the skin much longer.
ITC CEO – personal care products business Sameer Satpathy added, “Engage is synonymous with the proposition of ‘playful chemistry’, and the new thematic campaign ‘The Fantasy’ further reinforces its strong credentials as a perfume of choice for couples in love. With the evolving attitude and lifestyle of consumers, the segment offers an enormous opportunity to educate and drive category growth. Spritzing on pulse points is an important aspect rooted in the core of desirability and a perfume spray’s functionality”.
MUMBAI: Akamai Technologies, a cloud delivery platform, has released new research demonstrating how quality of video resolution and playback affects viewers’ engagement with and loyalty to over-the-top (OTT) video streaming services. Conveyed through advanced biometric measurement tools including facial coding and skin conductance, the findings underscore the importance of delivering consistent, high-quality video across any OTT business model.
Akamai research measures viewers’ physical and emotional reactions to buffering and low-quality video; shows disengaged viewers in both free and subscription-based (SVoD & AVoD) models.
According to the study conducted by third-party research firm Sensum, viewers disengage with emotive storylines and react negatively to low-quality streaming incidents like buffering regardless of the brand or interest in the content. The research shows negative emotions increase 16 per cent while engagement decreases nearly 20 per cent as a result of these poor experiences. The survey also demonstrates that 76 per cent of participants say they would stop using a service if issues such as buffering occurred several times.
“This unique research shows there is no place for low-quality video in any streaming business model,” said Akamai director of product marketing, media solutions, Ian Munford.
“The premium online video market is extremely competitive; the battle for revenue share is intense and subscriber acquisition costs are increasing, making differentiators like quality of experience more important than ever. Service providers cannot take risks with streaming experiences that are compromised by low resolution or buffering. They must provide consistent, high-quality experiences to help retain subscribers and reduce acquisition costs.”
The research also found:
Subscription video-on-demand (SVoD) brands lose the most engagement due to buffering while transactional video-on-demand (TVoD) models suffer the most negative impact to brand loyalty if delivering low-quality experiences.
High-resolution video content with emotive storylines improve viewer engagement by more than 10 per cent
When buffering begins:
Happiness drops 14 per cent
Negative emotions (disgust and sadness) increase by an average of eight per cent
Viewers’ feeling of surprise increases 27 per cent
Attention drops by three per cent and focus decreases by eight per cent
The study, one of the most comprehensive of its nature ever conducted, used a variety of testing procedures including sensory, implicit and explicit responses from more than 1,200 participants. All tests carried out adhered to the Video Quality Experts Group (VQEG) standards to ensure results could not be contaminated. Akamai also created fictitious brands to remove any previous emotional association with the business models and used the same content across all the brands to nullify the impact of content type on the respondents.
Meanwhile, Kaltura, a video technology provider, and Akamai entered into an agreement to extend their Net Alliance partnership to combine the power of Akamai’s Predictive Content Delivery with Kaltura’s TV Platform. Leveraging Akamai’s Predictive Content Delivery and CDN products, along with the Kaltura TV Platform’s deep customer behavior and content consumption intelligence, the joint solution facilitates predictive on-device caching of content, using smart resource management to efficiently download content in the background while on a strong Wi-Fi connection. The content is downloaded based on each user’s profile and history, and offered to the customer at any time for smooth offline viewing on any device regardless of network connection and quality. The solution is designed to allow video content providers to offer each user their preferred content with an excellent viewing experience.
MUMBAI: ITC’s leading personal care brand, and one of the top deodorant brands, Engage has announced the launch the country’s first pocket perfume – Engage On. With lasting fragrances for men and women, Engage On is a segment disrupting, revolutionary product that is aimed at millennial’s who are always connected, engaged and on the move. ITC’s Engage, one of India’s top deodorant brands, brings in a unique way to engage.
Engage since its inception has succeeded on offerings that are distinctly different and communication that breaks the category clutter. ITC aims to redefine the mass consumer fragrance category through the pocket-sized Engage On, which embodies the brand proposition of playful chemistry, complemented with innovative, compact and slim packaging. It is this distinct size difference, and portability that are the pocket perfume’s key differentiator.
Engage introduces the pocket perfume though a flirtatious TVC, conceptualised and created by JWT. The advert depicts the playful interaction between a young, college-age couple who see each other at a bar, and shows them both using their Engage On pocket perfumes discreetly. Thus tying in with the brand proposition of encouraging playful romance and chemistry.
Engage On will retail at INR 60/- per pack and promises upto 250 sprays per pack. The women’s varietals include: Cool Aqua, Fresh Floral and Sweet Blossom; while the men’s fragrances include a Classic Woody, Cool Marine, and Citrus Fresh option. The perfume is pocket-sized and light weight, easy to slip into jacket pockets, jeans or small handbags alike.
A convenient pocket-sized innovation in six fresh new fragrances, Engage ON, celebrates each unexpected moment when love happens! It embodies the brand proposition of playful romance and brings alive the new language of love through its range of Pocket Perfumes. Engage Onis a segment disruptor and breaks the category clutter yet again with its communication and portfolio offering.
Insight based innovation has been the bedrock of ITC’s Personal Care Business. Deodorising is an under penetrated grooming concept in India. The introduction of Engage ON caters to the evolving attitude and lifestyle of consumers in India.
ITC Limited CEO – personal care products business Sameer Satpathy said – “Engage On is an innovation in the category of perfumes. The Pocket Perfumes developed for the youth is designed around the core benefits of desirability, affordability and convenience. Crafted by International fragrance experts, Engage ON offers an enormous opportunity to educate and drive the growth of perfumes.”
The communication illustrates the brand philosophy and defines Engage On further. Directed by the critically acclaimed director Abhinay Deo and music composed by Dhruv Ghanekar, the commercial highlights the brand proposition of playful chemistry with Engage ON bringing in the confidence of smelling great anytime, anywhere.
J. Walter Thompson SVP & NCD Tista Sen said, “A pocket full of perfume is what the new Engage communication promises. The ‘must have’ for every young couple getting to know each other a little closer. The secret is theirs alone and the viewers and that’s what makes it enjoyable. With this new product innovation, perfume needn’t be just what sits on your dressing table but something you can carry with you. And use it anytime, anywhere. It’s romance on the go and that’s what the TG will identify with.”
“A perfect little innovation by ITC. It was so much fun working on the pocket campaign. The TVC gives us a glimpse into a sweet little love story between two young people. The fun is that only the viewer knows their secret, which is engage pocket perfumes,” J. Walter Thompson senior creative director Simone Patrick said.
MUMBAI: DHL Express, the world’s leading international services provider, and the ‘Official Logistics Partner’ of the Hero Indian Super League’s (ISL) has announced its launch of an interactive 360 degree brand campaign – “We know, great is in the detail”.
The campaign is poised to reach over 450 million people across the country, and will leverage an array of engaging touch-points. These include a four-part television commercial series aired on national television, DHL-ISL branded fleets across four cities -Mumbai, Pune, Cochin and Chennai, social media contest across the eight match venues and in-stadia branding throughout the duration of the ISL. Additionally, the campaign will roll out OOH hoardings, tie-ups with online ticketing partners as well as BTL activations to increase engagement with ISL fans.
“The brand campaign – We know, great is in the detail – has been shaped around DHL’s ability to achieve success through its devotion to detail. As Official Logistics Partner to several prestigious events across the globe, we know that it is the little details that come together to bring the moment alive. Be it in art, music, sport or business – the attention to detail is critical to success,” says DHL Express SVP & Country Manager, India, RS Subramanian, “This year, the campaign’s mainstay is the four-part TVC that engages football fans by creating that ‘wow’ factor and surprises them with details about the sport that they might not yet know about.”
Williams Lea Tag India, managing director Amit Chandra said, “We took the creative route of presenting “Unknown Facts”: highlighting little-known aspects about the sport that would amaze and enthuse football fans. At the same time, the TVCs were developed to deliver the message that DHL knows that great is in the detail – in a tone and manner relevant to the target audience. I wish them and the campaign huge success in garnering eyeballs.”
MUMBAI: DHL Express, the world’s leading international services provider, and the ‘Official Logistics Partner’ of the Hero Indian Super League’s (ISL) has announced its launch of an interactive 360 degree brand campaign – “We know, great is in the detail”.
The campaign is poised to reach over 450 million people across the country, and will leverage an array of engaging touch-points. These include a four-part television commercial series aired on national television, DHL-ISL branded fleets across four cities -Mumbai, Pune, Cochin and Chennai, social media contest across the eight match venues and in-stadia branding throughout the duration of the ISL. Additionally, the campaign will roll out OOH hoardings, tie-ups with online ticketing partners as well as BTL activations to increase engagement with ISL fans.
“The brand campaign – We know, great is in the detail – has been shaped around DHL’s ability to achieve success through its devotion to detail. As Official Logistics Partner to several prestigious events across the globe, we know that it is the little details that come together to bring the moment alive. Be it in art, music, sport or business – the attention to detail is critical to success,” says DHL Express SVP & Country Manager, India, RS Subramanian, “This year, the campaign’s mainstay is the four-part TVC that engages football fans by creating that ‘wow’ factor and surprises them with details about the sport that they might not yet know about.”
Williams Lea Tag India, managing director Amit Chandra said, “We took the creative route of presenting “Unknown Facts”: highlighting little-known aspects about the sport that would amaze and enthuse football fans. At the same time, the TVCs were developed to deliver the message that DHL knows that great is in the detail – in a tone and manner relevant to the target audience. I wish them and the campaign huge success in garnering eyeballs.”
MUMBAI: Primetime Media’s specialist out-of-home (OOH) media division Primetime OOH is in the process of revamping itself.
Primetime OOH has re-positioned itself as Prime Outdoors. The company has revamped its logo and brand to reposition itself as a trusted solution provider for the client’s OOH needs. Next, it shall concentrate on fine tuning its marketing strategy and adding more clients to its clientele and building brand by creating opportunities, environments and events that educate, engage, entertain, interact and inspire the target audience.
The company also has a new CEO in Sanjay Somvanshi who has 13 years of experience across companies like Yamaha Audio/Jamo Speakers, Actis Technologies, TDI International, En Route Media and has cross functional expertise.
“We wanted to highlight the fact that we are an “Outdoors” company that can stand on its own mettle. We also wanted to use our own logo for the outdoor business to help establish our independent identity which is completely focussed exclusively in the Indian outdoor space. Our marketing strategy is to be completely aligned with our philosophy of providing innovating, cost effective media options to advertisers which helps them meet their business objectives. Our future plan for Prime Outdoors would be brand recognition,” said Somvanshi.
On joining the company, Somvanshi said, “What intrigued me about Primetime was the fact that it is the first ‘six sigma company’ to have developed and implemented outdoor relevant systems and processes – PIPS (Prime Information and Process Systems), which enables one to deliver quality and benchmarked campaigns.”
Primetime was an early entrant in the Television media who started by selling airtime on television serials and films on Doordarshan and other private satellite networks. By virtue of diversification, Primetime has expanded their business to include international marketing of airtime, Out-of-Home media solutions, and specialised mid-sized and small towns initiatives and more recently by launching initiatives in the digital space.
Prime Outdoors has developed scientific tools such as PRISMS (Prime Information and Site Management System), which uses market information in terms of its total potential, profile of the population and different media options exposed to these towns. It also offers web-enabled services, such as the online tracker, ensure complete transparency which helps clients to view and monitor their campaigns conveniently online.
