ITV

Tag: Nescafe

  • 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.

  • Prime Video announces immersive & localised cricket experience for Ind vs. NZ series from 18 Nov

    Prime Video announces immersive & localised cricket experience for Ind vs. NZ series from 18 Nov

    Mumbai: Streaming service, Prime Video, amps up the excitement around the Indian cricket team’s tour of New Zealand beginning 18 November, with a series of announcements. In a first for Prime Video India, the service will show advertisements during live cricket matches. It has signed up Airtel Xstream Fiber as the presenting sponsor, and MPL, Nescafé, Noise, OLX Autos, and Vida have come on board as associate sponsors. Meanwhile, brands including AMFI and DBS join as advertisers.

    This move will help brands reach Prime Video’s premium base of highly engaged customers spread across the country.

    India and New Zealand both reached the semi-finals of the Twenty20 World Cup in Australia but lost their matches. They will now play a limited-overs series consisting of three T20s and three ODIs between 18 and 30 November. Prime Video is the official India territory rights holder to exclusively stream all men’s and women’s cricket matches played in New Zealand.

    Prime Video India director of SVoD business Sushant Sreeram said, “There are many things that are heterogeneous about the delightfully diverse India when it comes to entertainment—be it choice of language, genres of shows and movies, devices that customers prefer watching their favourite entertainment on, and so much more. But there is one absolute unifier that everyone across the country is unanimously passionate about, and that’s cricket! With our slate of compelling shows and movies over the last six years, we have strived to super-serve our customers, and they have emphatically picked Prime Video as their most loved entertainment destination. Now, with live cricket made immersive and accessible through multi-language feeds, fantastic studio programming, and a superb set of commentators to guide us through the series, we are confident that we will not only deliver a superior experience for the country’s legions of cricket fans, but also make Prime Video the first choice of entertainment for everyone.”

    “India and New Zealand have both been at the top of their white ball games in the recent past, and we expect some explosive cricket in the coming weeks from two of the best teams in the world as the cricketing action now moves from Australia to New Zealand,” he added.

    Prime Video will deliver live commentary and match-programming in English, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, and Telugu. Fans will also be treated to graphics in these languages. Former captains and cricketers like Ravi Shastri, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Gundappa Viswanath, Anjum Chopra, and Venkatpathy Raju, among others, will be bringing the matches alive with their insightful commentary in different languages as India tries to set the record straight against New Zealand. The BlackCaps knocked the Men in Blue out of the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup and also defeated India in the inaugural World Test Championship final in 2021.

    The full slate of commentators for the series includes the following names:

    English: Ravi Shastri, Harsha Bhogle, Anjum Chopra, Simon Doull, and Murali Kartik. Gaurav Kapoor will be the presenter.

    Hindi: Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Ajay Jadeja, Mohammad Kaif, and Ajit Agarkar.

    Tamil: WV Raman, Hemang Badani, L Sivaramakrishnan, and S Sriram.

    Kannada: Gundappa Viswanath, Veda Krishnamurthy, Shankar Prakash, Venkatesh Prasad, and K Jeshwant.

    Telugu: Venkatpathy Raju, Sunitha Anand, Sudhir Malwvedi, and Vijay Malwvedi.

    The cricket experience for the fans doesn’t stop here. Prime Video will also offer an English-language live one-hour pre-show before each game. The mid-innings break will feature a 15-minute show that will be a recap of the first inning and a preview of the second. The live programming also involves a 30-minute post-match presentation and analysis by Prime Video’s stable of cricket experts.

    Curating a new viewing experience for live sports, Prime Video will offer customers new features like an in-game language selector and “Rapid Recap.” The in-game language selector will allow customers to change languages (e.g., from English to Hindi) seamlessly without exiting the player. Customers joining a game in progress can catch-up on impactful game highlights using the “Rapid Recap” feature before transitioning to the live stream automatically.

    To watch the matches, consumers can go to the Prime Video app on their respective devices, where they will be able to find the live match featured on the home page. On Android and Smart TV devices, they can select the Cricket tab in the top navigation. The Cricket section’s landing page will include live matches as well as full replays of previous matches. Consumers can choose a language stream of their choice to enjoy the match. The page will also feature the key highlights of the matches—Super Sixes and short highlights—for a quick catch-up. Fans can stream these matches online through their web browser, mobile devices, internet-connected TVs, set-top boxes, Fire TV sticks, and other compatible devices.

  • Nestle India posts strong Q1 performance, net profit surges 14.6%

    Nestle India posts strong Q1 performance, net profit surges 14.6%

    NEW DELHI: FMCG major Nestle India posted a strong performance in the opening quarter of 2021, reporting a 14.6 per cent year-on-year growth in its net profit. Beating estimates, its PAT stood at Rs 602 crore, up from Rs 525 crore in the year-ago period.

    Total sales increased by 8.9 per cent during the quarter, while domestic sales rose by 10.2 per cent, mainly driven by volume and mix.

    The consumer goods giant’s revenue from operations during the quarter came in at Rs 3,610.8 crore, a surge of 8.6 per cent from Rs 3,325 crore in the same period last year.

    Its e-commerce operations have continued to pay dividends and grew by 66 per cent to maintain its robust contribution to the domestic sales.

    Export sales were lower by 12.9 per cent due to lower exports to affiliates. Demand in out of home channel has improved in the quarter but still remains impacted by Covid2019, the company said in a BSE filing.

    Key brands like Maggi noodles, Kitkat, Nescafé Classic, Maggi sauces, Milkmaid, Maggi Masala-e-Magic have also performed strongly and achieved double digit growth in Q1.

    “As the pandemic rages on, the quarter gone by has been another test of resilience of my team and our partners,” said Nestle India chairman & MD Suresh Narayanan. “I feel incredibly privileged to lead a team who faced with serious challenges, persevered regardless, to deliver double digit growth over a strong comparable in 2020. It is tribute to the commitment of the team to serve consumers as best as we could during the pandemic.”

    At the operating level, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in Q1 grew by 17.1 per cent to Rs 929.8 crore and margin expanded 190 bps to 25.8 percent compared to the year-ago period.

  • Nestlé’s new campaign aims to brew energy and positivity

    Nestlé’s new campaign aims to brew energy and positivity

    NEW DELHI: Nestlè India's coffee brand NESCAFÉ has come up with a new campaign called, ‘Karne se hee hona hai,’ for the coffee lovers across the country. The existing environment, with its uncertainties, has shown that life is full of opportunities and surprises for those who wish to find them. NESCAFÉ with its latest campaign aims to encourage people to seize these opportunities and surpass the challenges of the current times with optimism, action and resilience.  

    The brand has always encouraged the youth to dream, act and achieve. With this outlook, during these trying times, NESCAFÉ aims to motivate millennials, broaden the skyline of their imagination and to mentally stimulate them to re-start their lives with renewed focus and energy.  

    Nestlé India director of coffee & beverages Sunayan Mitra said, “The spirit of determination and tenacity forms the essence of this campaign, wherein a mug of NESCAFÉ is an ally, in the journey towards purposeful living, irrespective of the circumstances. The challenges, as a result of the current crisis, are significant. However, it is also a chance for everyone to take a moment and look at the bigger picture, adapt to the new world, and restart lives through conscious action. NESCAFÉ, the purposeful ally, motivates and supports consumers in this endeavour, while they go about restarting their lives in the evolving reality with hope, optimism and positive actions.”

    McCann India CEO and chief creative officer Prasoon Joshi said, “At a time when India is restarting after a prolonged crisis, NESCAFÉ through this campaign speaks of the spirit of purposiveness and resilience. ‘Karne se hee hona hai’ – a phrase that captures the positivity, hope and the optimism of the youth and those who take it upon themselves to be at the forefront to restart, infuse life and purpose into their passion.”

    Created with an upbeat background score, the latest TVC highlights that even though life had seemingly come to a halt with more than 100 days of being inside, we must now get ready to restart it and find newer ways to drive ourselves to achieve our dreams and ambitions.

    The link to the TVC can be accessed here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz01uvZK_tY

  • Nescafe launches OOH campaign for monsoon

    Nescafe launches OOH campaign for monsoon

    MUMBAI: It is monsoon and Nescafe, the coffee brand is back to make a statement yet again with its new OOH campaign ‘Badal Life Ki Raftaar’.

    The sudden, mischievous downpour, the romance of the grey clouds and the bank of hanging mist leaves one luxuriating in this much-loved season. Think monsoon and several munchies come to mind. It’s certainly a cliché but few joys can match up to the experience of watching the pitter-patter of rain on your window and a freshly brewed cup of coffee.

    Executed by Street Talk, the brand occupied the OOH medium solely considering its TG. The objective of the innovation was to spread the message that “You can’t guzzle a hot drink, it has to be taken slowly” (making it the perfect way to measure out breaks) and while you’re sipping and blowing and waiting for that optimum comfortable drinking temperature, you can inhale the warmth of the aromatic vapours.

    A lot of insights were put in place to arrive at the pockets that would have the best impact on the potential consumers. The agency studied the best permutation and combination with media price, site visibility potential and the best of site characteristics to arrive at the media placements specifically addressing the right TG.

    The cluster approach at key junctions aided immediate buzz for the brand. The brand was made highly visible using a No-Miss Media Approach where, the handpicked media did complete justice to brand.

    But the highlight of the campaign was the innovative steaming cup of coffee, strategically placed at high traffic zones across multiple locations to attract significant eyeballs. The billboard featured a coffee mug emitting fumes, emulating steam from a freshly brewed cup of coffee. 

  • Nestlé supports ‘Nanhi Kali’; changes packaging

    Nestlé supports ‘Nanhi Kali’; changes packaging

    MUMBAI: Nestlé India has changed the packaging of its iconic brands, Maggi, Nescafe and Kitkat to support girl child education in association with Nanhi Kali, an NGOs imparting education to underprivileged girl children across India.

    In an attempt to spread awareness about this crucial issue, Nestlé has changed packaging of 100 million packs available on shelves till September-end.

    Project Nanhi Kali was initiated in 1996 by the K. C. Mahindra Education Trust (KCMET) with the aim of providing primary education to underprivileged girl children in India.

    The changes include, Maggi’s tagline going from ‘2 minute noodles’ to ‘2 minutes for education,’ Kitkat’ to ‘No break from education’, and Nescafe changed the tagline to ‘It all starts with education.’ This has been further reinforced with a blue band which carries more information on the association with ‘Nanhi Kali.’

    Nestlé India MD and chairman Suresh Narayanan said, “Each time a consumer picks a pack, the visual properties of the brand serve as symbols of the promise the brand has made to the consumers. We are changing the packaging of three of our most iconic brands to sensitize and draw attention to the crucial need for society.”

    Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra added, “This is a path-breaking and innovative partnership between Nestlé India and a non-profit organisation.”

    The partnership with Nanhi Kali further strengthens the Nestlé Healthy Kids Programme which has already reached out to about 1,00,000 beneficiaries. Project Nanhi Kali, jointly managed by K. C. Mahindra Education Trust and Naandi Foundation, has been a credible programme.

  • Nestlé supports ‘Nanhi Kali’; changes packaging

    Nestlé supports ‘Nanhi Kali’; changes packaging

    MUMBAI: Nestlé India has changed the packaging of its iconic brands, Maggi, Nescafe and Kitkat to support girl child education in association with Nanhi Kali, an NGOs imparting education to underprivileged girl children across India.

    In an attempt to spread awareness about this crucial issue, Nestlé has changed packaging of 100 million packs available on shelves till September-end.

    Project Nanhi Kali was initiated in 1996 by the K. C. Mahindra Education Trust (KCMET) with the aim of providing primary education to underprivileged girl children in India.

    The changes include, Maggi’s tagline going from ‘2 minute noodles’ to ‘2 minutes for education,’ Kitkat’ to ‘No break from education’, and Nescafe changed the tagline to ‘It all starts with education.’ This has been further reinforced with a blue band which carries more information on the association with ‘Nanhi Kali.’

    Nestlé India MD and chairman Suresh Narayanan said, “Each time a consumer picks a pack, the visual properties of the brand serve as symbols of the promise the brand has made to the consumers. We are changing the packaging of three of our most iconic brands to sensitize and draw attention to the crucial need for society.”

    Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra added, “This is a path-breaking and innovative partnership between Nestlé India and a non-profit organisation.”

    The partnership with Nanhi Kali further strengthens the Nestlé Healthy Kids Programme which has already reached out to about 1,00,000 beneficiaries. Project Nanhi Kali, jointly managed by K. C. Mahindra Education Trust and Naandi Foundation, has been a credible programme.

  • ZenithOptimedia to continue to handle Nestle’s media biz

    MUMBAI: ZenithOptimedia has retained the media duties of Nestle India following a multi-agency pitch that took place a month ago.

    The size of the business is estimated to be around Rs 1.8 billion.

    The agency has been handling the media business of Nestle since 2005.

    Nestle India owns brands like Nescafe, Maggi, Milkybar, Kit Kat, Bar-One, Milkmaid and Nestea.

    In recent years the company has also introduced products of daily consumption and use such as Nestle Milk, Nestle Slim Milk, Nestle Dahi and Nestle Jeera Raita.

  • Nescafe launches new summer campaign

    Mumbai: Coffee major Nescafe has launched a 360 degree integrated campaign to ensure that its consumers ‘shake and make‘ and chill with cold coffee this summer.

    It is making an attempt to ensure that coffee remains a beverage of choice even in summers and further extend Nescafe‘s market leadership in the category, the company said.

    Nescafe has roped in Aegis Media‘s Posterscope to conceptualise its outdoor campaign in Delhi and Kolkata while DDB MudraMax has come on board to work on its OOH campaign in Mumbai.

    The objective of the campaign was to generate high level of engagement for this new format of Nescafe amongst the TG. The campaign has been created around the ‘Shake Well Make Well‘ proposition (in sync with the ongoing TVC for the brand). Nescafe brand ambassador Deepika Padukone will feature in the ads across cities.

    Posterscope Group India managing director Haresh Nayak said, “This is our 3rd year of working on the brand and our 8th summer related campaign across categories and brands. For this campaign we have focused on impact through high frequency and have used our Prism Suite of tools to greater effect.”

    Posterscope India senior business director Vinay Goel added, “Keeping the brand and brief in mind, we planned a high decibel high impact campaign with extensive mix of out of home media vehicles. The choices of media for this campaign are strategic wherein we used traditional media like billboard and unipole for largeness. Bus shelters, metro stations, mall branding and commercial office places for reach while Digital OOH like LED screen and digital screens inside Easy cab used to bring in technology.‘

    In Gurgaon, the DLF buildings were targeted and sculpted by creating a corridor with multiple media like Wall wraps, building façade, lift branding, bench branding and scrollers.

    One of the key challenges for Posterscope was to obtain the desired quality and number of media vehicles at the right locations. Multiple hits across all important high traffic routes have helped quick registration and high recall of the campaign, the agency said.

    In Mumbai, more than eighty bus-shelters spread strategically over the city ensured high-visibility and recall along with key sites at malls. Volvo and King long buses were also used to peak the interests, DDB MudraMax said.