Author: Kashmeera Sambamurthy

Mastercard announces appointment of Gautam Aggarwal as Division President, South Asia & Country Corporate Officer, India

Gautam joined Mastercard in 2014, bringing with him more than a decade of experience across technology, sales and business development, product management, strategy, and M&A. Since then, he has held several leadership roles across the company, in both the United States and Asia Pacific region. Most recently, from 2019-2022, he served as Regional Chief Technology Officer for Asia Pacific, spearheading Mastercard’s $1 billion+ technology investments in key markets including India, Australia, China, Japan and Southeast Asia

Aggarwal will oversee all of Mastercard’s activities across South Asia and India, including product management, engagements with customers and regulators, marketing and more.

Media Mavens: The industry needs to start addressing the pay gap, says Monaz Todywalla of PHD India

"Media agencies have been adept at offering women opportunities based on their meritocracy and intelligence. As an ecosystem, it levels the playing field for individuals regardless of their gender," says Monaz Todywalla

Todywalla talks about the changing role of leadership, the millennial workforce, the gender pay gap, and the trends to look out for.

Reliance Consumer Products inks joint venture with Sosyo Hajoori Beverages

Sosyo, boasts a loyal customer base in Gujarat, is a heritage Indian brand with around 100 years of legacy in carbonated soft drinks (CSD) and juices. Currently, the operations are looked after by Abbas Hajoori and his son Aliasgar Hajoori. The brands in the company’s portfolio include Sosyo, Kashmira, Lemee, Ginlim, Runner, Opener, Hajoori Soda and S’eau. (Still from the ad)

Recently, Reliance Consumer Products also added beverage brand Campa and packaged consumer products brand Independence to its product portfolio.

Godrej CMO Ashwin Moorthy on Cinthol’s new ad, changing portrayals of women and more

While the portrayal of women has evolved in Cinthol advertising, the stress on the skin protection, health benefits and doctor recommendations continue to remain the same. (Stills from the ad)

Ashwin Moorthy, chief marketing officer – India, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd (GCPL), admits that consumers have changed in the Tamil Nadu market and they don’t relate to the old beauty propositions alone.

AnyMind Group’s Rubeena Singh: Legacy brands will be forced to have D2C strategy in 2023

"The India tech stack offers a very compelling advantage which is driving the hyper growth of digital transactions in India. All legacy brands will be forced to have a direct-to-consumer (D2C) strategy and will ride on this wave of digital and influencer marketing driven commerce," says Singh. (Image courtesy: Rubeena Singh)

Rubeena Singh talks about her new mandate at AnyMind, cross-pollination of ideas between Indian and the MENA markets and key trends that will dominate 2023.

A Zomato and Blinkit collaboration on billboards: ‘Doodh mangoge…’

While Zomato is one of the major food delivery apps in India, Blinkit, its grocery business, operates in 27 cities and is planning to expand into others. Between the two apps, customers can order everything from kheer to milk (which, incidentally, was the most-ordered item this year on Blinkit’s rival Dunzo)

Blinkit and its parent company Zomato have tied up for an ad collaboration that takes a popular Bollywood dialogue and turns it on its head.

Former Josh country manager Rubeena Singh joins AnyMind Group

Singh joined Josh, a homegrown short video platform in October 2021. Prior to this Singh was the chief executive officer of Dentsu Group-owned digital-first media agency iProspect, where she spent four years.

Singh will lead the India and MENA operations for the Singapore-based group that acquired India-based Pokkt Mobile Ads in March 2020.

CRED Viral Ad: Meet Youngun – the meme marketing agency behind CRED’s viral ad campaign

Youngun is also the agency behind recent meme marketing campaign hits like Myntra’s Vanshika and the Subway campaign where a woman asked users to edit out a man photobombing her image. The agency has also done work for Netflix and Spotify. (From left - Saksham Jadon, Aman Hussain, Deepak Kumar and Ashish Kanojia)

Saksham Jadon, founder of Youngun, talks about the brief behind the classified ads campaign, planned virality and why creating hype works for brands in the digital age.

Centre releases draft rules to regulate gaming in the country

Most platforms have increased their marketing efforts before the IPL season to acquire and convert more users on the platforms.The report also stated that the average spends per user are expected to grow by 5-10 percent from Rs 410 per user in IPL 2022 to Rs 440 per user in IPL 2023. (Representative Image: Florian Olivo via Unsplash)

The draft has a strong focus on code of ethics, grievance redressal mechanism, self-regulation, furnishing of information and content guidelines.