Mumbai: The movie 12th Fail explores the journey of Manoj Kumar Sharma and despite all odds, how he restarted his journey towards success. The banter was appreciated by the media, critics and brands alike.
Zee Studios’ latest film 12th Fail has been creating a buzz everywhere through its raw emotions with a story that connects to the hearts alongside a striking performance by Vikrant Massey. The story revolves around IPS aspirant Manoj Kumar Sharma played by Vikrant Massey. Despite all the challenges, with hope and courage, he always chose to restart.
The story weaved a seamless connection with the audience as it portrayed the real struggle of a UPSC aspirant and the idea of never giving up. This became the very reason for the movie to receive humongous support from the brands.
Leveraging the central theme of the film i.e. never giving up, Zee Studios kicked off a unique brand banter on X with the hashtag #Restart. Brands across the nation resonated well with it, and the audience as well shared their ‘Restart’ journey.
Popular and significant brands like Zepto, Lenskart, Yatra.com, Ixigo, Xiaomi India, Nerolac Paints India, Sugar Cosmetics, Ajio, Magicpin, CoinSwitch, Eloelo, Meesho, Snapdeal, iQOO India & Mivi participated and integrated their products and services in this fun banter.
Here’s how brands participated and shared their #restart journey:
The movie 12th Fail is an inspiration, not just for UPSC aspirants but for everyone to lead their way to success, rise back stronger after failures, and fly high!
This activity was a major part of the movie campaign that gained a lot of attention and created ripples of conversations. The movie 12th Fail is produced by Zee Studios and marketed by White Rivers Media, an integrated, independent digital marketing agency.
Mumbai: SUGAR Cosmetics, one of India’s leading omnichannel beauty companies and a cult favorite amongst Gen Z and Millennial consumers is set to mark the festive season with a heartwarming TVC featuring the Bengali superstar, Prosenjit Chatterjee along with actors Tonni Laha Roy, Diya Mukherjee, and Aratrika Maity.
In this captivating narrative, Prosenjit extends a unique opportunity to his fans to meet him this Pujo season, adding an extra dash of excitement to the celebrations. The TV Commercial will be aired statewide across leading Bengali prime television channels. This is being amplified across mainstream digital, social media channels, and retail touchpoints.
The campaign is a mesmerizing spectacle that unfolds against the backdrop of a beautifully lit Goddess idol, uniting people in the spirit of celebration. As the luminous goddess casts her radiant glow, a young woman stands before a mirror, becoming a canvas for the artistry of SUGAR Cosmetics. Then, in a spellbinding twist, the charismatic Prosenjit Chatterjee makes a grand entrance, bearing SUGAR Cosmetics goodie bags. The crowd gathers around him, captivated, as he generously distributes these treasures to the elated ladies. In the TVC, Prosenjit Chatterjee also invites viewers to participate in an exciting opportunity, stating, “Just give a missed call on the number, and you can get the chance to meet me on Ashtami and receive exciting gifts from SUGAR.’’
Excited about the commercial, Chatterjee added, ‘Collaborating with SUGAR Cosmetics for this Pujo TVC has been nothing short of enchanting. The campaign truly encapsulates the essence of Pujo celebrations in every Bengali household. I eagerly await meeting my beloved fans and revel in the festive spirit together. Sharod Praate SUGAR-er Sathe!’
Commenting on the launch of the TV commercial, Kaushik Mukherjee, Co-Founder & COO of SUGAR Cosmetics said, ‘This TVC is an embodiment of the vivacious Pujo celebrations with your loved ones. Having everyone’s beloved Prosenjit Chatterjee as part of this campaign is an absolute thrill. With this campaign, we want to reach out to every woman who believes in effortless beauty. SUGAR Cosmetics aspires to make this festive season an extraordinary delight for all.”
If you are an ardent fan of Prosenjit Chatterjee, then give a miss call on 9099186666 and stand a chance to meet him. SUGAR Cosmetics’ presence on social media platforms has been growing and evolving at a tremendous speed, with the brand recently hitting 2.8M+ followers on Instagram. The brand’s YouTube page has also had a huge growth spurt this year reaching a whopping 1.6M+ subscribers and Twitter on the other hand stands strong at 44.3K+.
Mumbai: Omnichannel beauty company, SUGAR Cosmetics, announced on Tuesday the close of its $50 million Series D fundraise led by the Asia fund of L Catterton, global consumer-focused private equity firm. The upsized round saw strong interest from multiple private equity funds with continued participation from existing investors – A91 Partners, Elevation Capital and India Quotient, the company said in a statement.
Sharing the news on LinkedIn, SUGAR Cosmetics CEO Vineeta Singh wrote: Funding isn’t a milestone, but when it also coincides with the biggest month in sales for SUGAR Cosmetics, it’s time to express a ton of gratitude – for our crazy team, our passionate customers and of course the best set of investors ever!
“Welcoming L Catterton the world’s largest consumer focused PE fund to our cap table along with A91 Partners, IndiaQuotient and Elevation Capital. Excited about having another feisty woman on the board, Anjana Sasidharan and can’t wait to build together the most loved beauty brand for young India,” she further added.
The country’s beauty and personal care market has expanded considerably over the past five years, and is expected to reach approximately $21 billion in 2025. SUGAR stated that it has quadrupled its sales over the past five years, adding that it deploys new-age, impact-focused content marketing to develop lasting emotional connections.
The cosmetics company said in a statement that its proliferation of online shopping and the creation of a robust local ecosystem of offline distribution partners has enabled it to attract customers from metros to Tier I and II cities. It added that the rising adoption of online shopping and greater product penetration in secondary cities are also driving the market’s enlargement.
CEO Vineeta Singh said, “At SUGAR, we are devoted to creating innovative products that meticulously cater to the preferences of women with diverse skin tones and types who believe in expressing themselves with high-quality cosmetics and skincare products that complement their inner beauty. L Catterton shares our ethos of truly understanding what matters most to consumers, and my co-founder Kaushik and I are thrilled to welcome the firm as our partner,” further adding that the investor’s brand-building and value creation capabilities will fortify its growth.
L Catterton Asia managing director Anjana Sasidharan said, “We have been impressed with how SUGAR has sustained its momentum of rapid growth across online and offline channels while maintaining healthy operating metrics… With a product-first mindset and deep understanding of their target consumers, SUGAR’s leadership team has established a strong position in India’s cosmetics market, which is at an exciting inflection point of expansion.”
Known for being popular among Gen Z and millennials, the brand aims to further capitalise on its growth momentum in the rapidly growing beauty and personal care market. SUGAR Cosmetics has been scaling its physical presence with over 40,000 retail outlets across over 550 cities.
The 15th edition of Goafest has seen interesting conversations on day one. Sugar Cosmetics co-founder and chief executive officer Vineeta Singh was part of the biggest advertising festival where she spoke about the journey of Sugar Cosmetics, its marketing channels and talked about the popular show The Shark Tank.
In 2015, Sugar Cosmetics was launched as a digital-first brand, which catered to the needs of Indian women. However, the brand has grown exponentially in the last seven years. Mentioning its growth in the market during day one of the Goafest event, Singh said, “We launched Sugar in 2015 and right now almost 60 per cent of consumers from more than 30,000 offline stores continue to discover us online.”
The sugar cosmetics brand has witnessed a transition since it started its business in the market. “We saw a transition happen and we knew this would amplify. Now, more than 90 per cent of women consumers are doing digital shopping,” she added.
In the initial days, the brand experienced many challenges but being digital-first helped them to establish itself as a strong D2C cosmetics brand. “It seemed so difficult to disrupt the Loreals, P&Gs and Unilevers of the world. But in the last few years, digital has allowed us to compete.”
On unpaid influencer marketing
Sugar Cosmetics has a whopping 2.1 million followers on Instagram, and 60,000 subscribers on Youtube. The brand doesn’t spend a single penny on influencer marketing.
“Consumers have become so smart now and they can easily figure out the fake and paid influencer marketing tactics hence it’s not useful to spend on influencer marketing,” she said.
“We don’t spend on influencer marketing at all, still it is one of the strongest marketing tools for us. We have more than one-thousand influencers associated with us but they are all with us without any fee. They’re the real users of our customers. They promote our brand and in return, we feature them on our platform,” she explained.
The brand is too young for performance marketing
Sugar cosmetics has experimented with performance marketing but the approach didn’t work well for the brand. Sharing the reason behind it, Singh said, “I do feel that just spending as a young brand on performance marketing is not great for brand building.”
Explaining it further, she added, “At the end of the day, you know, the relationship that you have with the consumer, which you get through performance marketing is very transactional.”
She added that the brands are built on deep emotional relationships. So, you need to go beyond the transaction, which is why we feel that the best investment is to woo consumers with a great product, communication, design and packaging.
On being asked, how do they manage to hit that sweet spot between being a premium or affordable product? She reveals that the cosmetic brand does a lot of benchmarking. She added, “Our whole idea is that world-class quality at an affordable price will always be like 40-50 per cent more premium than the largest brands.”
“Despite the price range, we always ensure that when the consumer gets the product in her hand, she feels like she’s getting more than what she paid,” she added.
“At the same time, we invest heavily in the packaging and the entire brand experience is more about a nicely packaged product. Customers are usually ready to pay a slight premium for the room,” she asserted.
On growth in the regional market
While the Indian middle class is a little hesitant when it comes to spending on cosmetic products, Vineeta revealed that the emerging selfie culture has helped them to get a lot of customers from the regional market.
She revealed, “The highest part of our business comes from the Northeastern part of the country, especially West Bengal.”
“In the west, we have a huge consumer base in Punjab and the south, our major business comes from Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha,” she added.
She shared, “Looking at the demand in the regional market, we try to create a lot of content in the regional languages as well. The whole northern and central belt gets covered with Hindi. So, we don’t have to create specific content for them but we specifically create a lot of Bengali, Tamil and Telugu content and it works great for us.”
About Shark Tank
After being a part of Shark Tank, Vineeta’s popularity has overpowered the popularity of Sugar Cosmetics. “But it’s my dream to make Sugar cosmetics more famous,” she noted.
Mumbai: After a three-year long hiatus, Pocket Aces’ long-form storytelling channel Dice Media has released the fourth and final season of web show – “What The Folks!” (WTF4). The previous seasons of WTF have garnered a reach of over 80 million on YouTube, the platform said.
Presented by toothsi and co-powered by Sugar Cosmetics, the fourth season will also see participation from complementing partners like Manyavar, Tru Hair and skinnsi.
WTF4 focuses on the Sharma family that is seen hustling between two major life decisions of marriage and parenthood that its members are about to take. Elaborating the rationale behind the brand integrations, the official statement read, “With wedding bells in full swing, the invisible aligners by toothsi and makeup range by SUGAR Cosmetics seamlessly support the storyline. These new-age brands have taken to content integrations to establish long-term recall value among relevant audiences. Manyavar has already created a presence for itself the Indian wedding-wear segment, not just for the bride and groom but for every other family member too.”
toothsi head of marketing Shuchita Wadhwa said, “The show is targeted at our country’s youth. It is an amazing match for a youth-oriented brand like toothsi and skinnsi, leading clinical beauty platforms. A wedding signifies the start of a new and most important chapter in life, one in which lifelong memories are formed. Through ‘What The Folks! S4’, we strive to be a part of these important occasions and to help people feel more confident which comes across through the characters in the show.”
“We are super stoked to have partnered with Dice Media for ‘What the Folks! Season 4’. This season’s focus on a wedding syncs well with the launch of our Sugar Bride IP. Anita’s sister will be seen as a Sugar Bride, using the Bridal Box for her wedding look. Her friends and Anita will be a part of the Bride Tribe. This seamless integration will help us build a strong connection with the show’s viewers and we are certain that it will take us a step further in instilling customer recall for SUGAR Cosmetics as ‘the brand’ for every bride, for their bridal trousseaus and for their bridesmaids,” added Sugar Cosmetics co-founder and COO Kaushik Mukherjee.
“It has been a beautiful journey over the past four seasons of ‘What the Folks!’ and we are very proud to see how the show has struck the right chords with its fan base making the whole journey truly worthwhile for us and our partners,” commented Pocket Aces AVP sales and brand solutions Sheveeta Hedge.
“We are glad to have built synergies with exciting and new-age brand partners like toothsi & Sugar in the season finale of ‘WTF!’ and are certain that they will benefit hugely from this collaboration. With the show coming to an end, there is a feeling of void but I am confident that our Dice audience will have more stimulating content to look forward to this year,” she added.
Mumbai: Beauty brand Sugar Cosmetics on Wednesday launched its latest campaign called #BoldAndFree featuring Bollywood actor Taapsee Pannu.
The brand campaign is off to an aggressive start with both simultaneous launches on television, print and OOH. This will be further amplified across various mainstream digital and social media channels, the brand said in a statement.
The OOH campaign will go live Pan India including metro cities and major tier 1 & 2 cities. The TVC will be aired nationwide in eight languages including Hindi, English, Marathi, Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu across all prime electronic channels, it added.
The campaign is a celebration of the brand’s philosophy of empowering women to look beyond societal approvals and be comfortable, confident & bold in their own skin.
“We love making beauty fun and constantly aim at creating clutter-breaking personas. When we look at Taapsee, we see someone who is self-made – with the same bold, cheerful and fearless attitude that the brand resonates with,” said Sugar Cosmetics CEO & co-founder Vineeta Singh.
“Working in Bollywood, it is very important to be versatile, to be able to take on any character with ease and Sugar Cosmetics is that versatile hero in the beauty industry,” said Pannu on the association. “Just as I take on various characters in my films, Sugar’s products are designed to take on and suit every Indian skin tone making the wearer look beautiful and confident in her own skin.”
Mumbai: Carat, the media agency from the house of dentsu India, has won the media mandate for beauty brand Sugar Cosmetics. The account was won following a comprehensive competitive pitch process, the agency said.
As per the mandate, the agency will oversee media strategy, planning and buying for the total portfolio of the brand.
Speaking on the account win, Carat India CEO Anita Kotwani said, “Carat is committed to creating meaningful end-to-end media solutions through data-driven marketing, and to further accelerate the brand’s growth journey. As a team, we are excited to get this opportunity to work with a brand that is loved by the women of today!”
Sugar Cosmetics CEO & co-founder Vineeta Singh added, “Carat came highly recommended to us. Their strategic thinking, experience, and efficiencies stood out. Partnering with them on our media strategy is reassuring, given their data-driven approach in meeting our brand goals.”
Mumbai: Beauty brand SUGAR Cosmetics has announced the appointment of Suchit Sikaria, former managing partner of Performics India, as the chief business officer to lead and handle the core direct to consumer division. With this strategic move, the brand aims to double-down on its aggressive past performance of building one of India’s fastest-growing brands in the D2C consumer space, it said in a statement.
An MBA from IIM – Ahmedabad, Sikaria brings more than 14 years of leadership experience in sales, marketing, and business operations with stints at Performics India and Nokia India. He also brings an additional four years of start-up experience from his own entrepreneurial venture.
SUGAR Cosmetics co-founder & CEO Vineeta Singh said, “We are excited to welcome Suchit Sikaria as the new Chief Business Officer for our D2C business at SUGAR Cosmetics and are eager to see the magic he creates for the brand. Over the past 6 months at SUGAR, we have aggressively been growing the team and recruiting the sharpest minds who can accelerate the brand’s trajectory – 120+ new team members, and we’re not done yet. Suchit’s deep expertise in scaling large-budget performance marketing campaigns for one of India’s largest digital advertising agencies will be pivotal to scaling the revenues 5x times in the next 3 years and further cementing the brand’s hold in the D2C market space.”
Speaking on his new role, Sikaria said, “I am incredibly excited to start this new journey at SUGAR Cosmetics. I have been avidly following the journey of this brand and have been quite inspired by how quickly they have grown and become a cult-favourite among India’s gen Z and millennial women. I look forward to bringing in my experience of the industry and building the brand into a much larger D2C player; not just in the country, but even globally. I look forward to this new opportunity!”
In addition to SUGAR’s international presence in the US & Russia markets, SUGAR has also recently forayed into the Middle Eastern market in an exclusive partnership with the Landmark group and will be retailing their products at Lifestyle Stores across UAE and other countries
MUMBAI: How many people know that the now cult-favourite beauty brand of Gen Z and millennials, SUGAR was once on the verge of shutting shop due to lack of funding?
The direct-to-consumer SUGAR Cosmetics founded in 2015 by IIM Ahmedabad alumni Vineeta Singh and Kaushik Mukherjee is one of the fastest-growing premium beauty brands in India today. However, things were far from rosy for the Mumbai-based start-up back in 2016 when it did not even have enough money to import its first batch of lipsticks manufactured in Germany.
Pulling back the curtain on an untold story of a contrarian bet for the brand in 2015, Co-founder & CEO Vineeta Singh says, “SUGAR Cosmetics started as a direct-to-consumer cosmetics brand in 2015 with products that were specifically created for young Indian women. Very few people know that it was also at this time when the company was pivoting from the beauty subscription service to a cosmetics brand, it came very close to shutting down.”
Had it not been for a leap of faith from its earliest backer, India Quotient, dipping into their ‘reserve for AMC fees’ funds for a sizeable sum of Rs 1 crore, the founder admits the picture would have been starkly different today.
“In 2016, having already infused capital from their first fund, the partners at India Quotient, Madhukar Sinha and Anand Lunia, were clear that their fiduciary duty towards their limited partners ruled out any possibility of any further investment from their successor fund without an external investor leading the round. However, for reasons best known to them, they took an extremely risky call of lending the company Rs 1 crore from the funds ‘reserve for AMC fees’ amount that VCs earn for managing the fund,” says Singh.
Without India quotient’s cash infusion, Apart from being unable to pay their German manufacturers to release the products that were ready for delivery, the company would never have reached the 2017 Series A which eventually set the brand up on a different trajectory altogether, she details. “It gives us immense joy to be able to return 49X of their investment to them and thank them for the pivotal role they’ve had and continue to have as SUGAR scales,” she gushes.
The cruelty-free brand has quickly made its way into most makeup aficionado’s hearts and vanity bags. The year 2021 was off to a strong start for the digital-first beauty player as it announced a $21 Million (Rs 153 crore) Series C funding round in early February. As part of this, India Quotient marginally trimmed its holding to clock a 49X return on its investment at an IRR of 61 per cent.
Till date, the company has raised a total of $33 Million funds. India Quotient has consistently backed the founding team through all four rounds of funding, including the recently concluded Series C where it co-invested with Elevation Capital and A91 Partners. As a result, India Quotient is currently the second largest institutional investor of the company with a stake worth more than its first two funds put together.
The early-stage investor firm first invested in the vision back in 2013 when the parent company Vellvette Lifestyle was pursuing a beauty subscription service business model. In 2015, SUGAR Cosmetics was launched under the same company with a limited range of Crayon Lipsticks, Vivid Lipsticks, Matte Eyeliner and Kajal that disrupted the online cosmetics market and went viral through rave reviews on Instagram and YouTube. Starting with net revenue of Rs 3 crore in 2016-2017 the brand successfully clocked in Rs 105+ crores in its fourth fiscal year, reaching an 85 per cent year-on-year growth rate. This, while notching up 1.5+ million followers across social media platforms on the side.
India Quotient founding partner Madhukar Sinha said, “Ever since the launch of our operations in 2012, we have invested in over 70 start-ups. While we first backed the founders in 2013, we did infuse some amount in SUGAR Cosmetics in 2016 from the first fund’s reserve for AMC fees amount – we just knew that this association was to go a long way. The projections of the online beauty industry and the all-in approach of the team just had to be seen through to the Series A fundraise in June 2017.”
Besides investments in keeping the brand’s fast-moving product range ahead of the curve, SUGAR plans on using their latest funds in building both digital and retail distribution to further their reach in existing and new geographies, particularly in tier-2 and tier-3 towns of India. The brand’s Android and iOS apps have seen a million downloads with a 4.6-star rating, indicating a strong community of beauty enthusiasts that the brand speaks to. The retail footprint is also expected to grow from the current 10,000+ retail outlets to 40,000+ in the current year.
Sinha affirms, “Seeing the brand grow to become a cult-favourite among millennial women was a proud moment for us as well because we knew that the gut feel was validated. Watching how quickly SUGAR was carving their mark in the beauty industry, we returned to invest in the brand in their Series B & Series C rounds as well. For a brand that is merely 5 years old, SUGAR has taken the industry by storm and we are happy to be a part of their success journey.” Indeed.
NEW DELHI: Every year in the countdown March 8, brands go all out to woo the ‘fairer sex’, leaving no stone unturned. We are bombarded by a plethora of deals for retail therapy and tempting offers for some actual therapy at spas and salons to pamper women this one day of the year. They vie with one another on who can come up with better revolutionary, trendsetting ad campaigns that can grab more number of eyeballs. This year’s no different and in the run up to the much celebrated International Women’s Day, many brands have launched fresh campaigns to mark the occasion.
Let's take a look on who nailed it and who perhaps missed the mark…
OkCupid – ‘Ijazat Hai’
Online dating app OkCupid has released a digital campaign called Ijazat Hai. We are well into the 21st century and yet a majority of women are still raised to believe they need their partner’s permission to pursue a career, many of them still find themselves having to take ‘permission’ to live their life. The ad tries to break down the stereotype that a woman needs to have anyone’s assent for pursuing her dreams and goals or simply to live her life her way. It throws the spotlight on the supposed ‘benefactors’ in a woman’s life who think they are being liberal, broadminded and progressive by ‘allowing’ the women in their life this ‘privilege’. Whereas by needlessly bragging about it they are in fact actually stripping a woman's agency.
Prega News – #SheIsCompleteInHerself
In our society, where the defining purpose of a woman’s life is becoming a mother, infertility is viewed as a curse. To speak out against this bias, pregnancy test kit brand Prega News has released a new ad featuring actress Mona Singh. The ad has been widely acclaimed as shattering a much needed stereotype of an ideal woman. The ad shows Mona Singh as a doting, dutiful daughter-in-law, getting happy for her younger, pregnant sister-in-law. However, her own infertility casts a shadow over her happiness. The ad then showcases how she is also a super achiever, multitasker and superwoman all rolled into one- who ensures the happiness and needs of everyone around her. The ad tries to convey the message that irrespective of being unable to conceive, she is complete in herself.
The description of the ad reads, "Infertility affects every one in six couples in India and the circumstances around them make them suffer in silence. This Women's Day, let's speak up about infertility issues – and make this world a better place for people battling infertility. Prega News urges you to celebrate every woman for who she is because #SheIsCompleteInHerself.” Which is all very great, except that it is precisely what the ad does not do – “celebrate every woman for who she is.” By showing that only a woman who puts everyone’s needs and happiness above her own deserves her family’s love and acceptance, it is sadly reinforcing other stereotypes while trying to break down one. If only the brand had been bold enough to show an ordinary, everyday woman to send out this crucial message it would have made it much more effective. Aren’t we women tired of these tropes associated with us, with society constantly trying to either undermine us or else then place us on a pedestal? Can we live a normal life without sky-high societal expectations binding us down please?
Sugar Cosmetics- #EveryWomanIsAWonderWoman
Something along these lines is what beauty brand Sugar Cosmetics is trying to convey. Through their #EveryWomanIsAWonderWoman digital campaign it urges all women to stay beautifully fearless, while encouraging them to embrace and love everything about themselves, this Women's Day. Its recognises the fact that women are often self-conscious. In the growing age of social media where everyone looks up to someone who has a perfect body, or a beautiful smile, or a bold personality; they are led to believe that they may not be good enough. While we may always be happy to embrace the things we love about ourselves; we tend to shy away from the things we feel that might appear as a flaw. However, nobody is perfect and we are all the best version of ourselves.
The brand says, “When it comes to looking for a Wonder Woman in your life, you don't have to look too far; because you’re a Wonder Woman yourself, we all are. This Woman’s Day, don’t just embrace who you are, but the journey that led you to become who you are. Embrace the scars, the struggles, the defeats and the wins; because everything you are, is everything you are meant to be. Let beauty have no boundaries and rules.”
To this end, the brand aims to engage with approximately 8,000+ influencers to create maximum reach and engagement on this campaign by sharing what they’ve come to accept about themselves and embrace going forward. The posts would read as- “I embrace ________ I am a Wonder Woman!” The influencers will go on and encourage their followers to also participate and join the campaign to celebrate all the wonderful women. In lines with this theme, Sugar Cosmetics has also launched a limited edition range of mini liquid lipstick sets with names like Fearless, Fighter, Invincible and Adventurous.
MTV India – ‘There’s more to a girl’s life than Shaadi’
While there’s enough and more inspiration to be had from these Women’s Say campaigns, here is one which caught our eye for its quirky humour quotient. The digital campaign by MTV India sends out this message loud and clear: “There’s more to a girl’s life than Shaadi”. The ad is set in the future – in the year 2071 in outer space, perhaps so that the message is not just heard here on earth but also resounds across the universe. It features a female astronaut connecting with her mom back on earth from a spaceship. She talks about the ordeal she underwent to survive, while she discovered an alternate planet for earthlings to inhabit in the future. After patiently hearing her through, her mom hilariously has just one question to ask of her at the end of it, “Shaadi kab karogi beta? (When will you get married, dear?)”
The ad ends with the message, “Kuch toh society kahegi, society ka kaam hain taane dena. But this womens day just say #AawaazNahiAaRahi and move on.” Badass.
Co-working spaces brand WeWork’s campaign on International Women’s Day calls out patronising or discriminatory conversations that every woman has been subjected to at some point in their professional journey at their workplaces. The ad starts off with the words “Feel like you’ve heard this before?” and goes on to feature an audio track playing out all the usual dialogues a working woman usually comes across. Which goes to show that despite all the progress women have made in their life and career how certain typecasts and biases still haven't changed across the world. The video is a reflection of the society we have grown up in and the stereotypes women have been subjected to in the workspace. “Let’s take a moment to challenge these biases and work towards an inclusive space,” the ad says.
Voltas beko – “ghar sabki zimmedaari bhi sabki honi chahiye”
This digital commercial is conceptualised by Voltas Beko and Momspresso, a leading platform providing content for the multi-faceted mothers of today. The digital video #GharSabkaZimmedariSabki is an attempt to debunk the age old beliefs that women are solely responsible for looking after every aspect of the household- whether she be a homemaker or working woman. The refreshing message sent out is that if the home belongs to everyone, so does the household responsibilities it entails.
SBI General Insurance – #BringingWomenBackToWork
While it’s nice and "feelgood" to see brands put in so much effort to woo women, it is even more heartening when they go a step further to actually make a difference in their lives. By stepping into their world and trying to understand the problems they face. A tiny step along these lines has been taken by SBI General Insurance, one of India’s leading general insurance companies. To reiterate its commitment to diversity and inclusion in the workplace, SBI General has launched its #BringingWomenBackToWork initiative. This initiative is a step to encourage and hire women looking to rebuild and resume their careers after a break.
SBI General Insurance CHRO Sharad Dhakkate says, “With #BringingWomenBackToWork initiative, we aim to provide women a platform to facilitate their journey towards their career goals which they may have put on hold for various reasons. We believe that this initiative will create opportunities as well as enable us to augment our workforce and grow from strength to strength. We are glad to have received an overwhelming response of over 200 applications in response to our social media campaign #BringingWomenBackToWork.”
