Appy Fizz. a fruit-flavoured drink from Parle Agro, has revealed its new branding. 

The iconic red, white and black brand colours have been juxtaposed in eye-catching, clean, contemporary lettering for the brand’s logo. "Appy Fizz’s fresh packaging makes a striking statement poised to be clutter breaking," said the company. 

Nadia Chauhan, the Joint Managing Director & CMO of Parle Agro, has emphasized the unique position of Appy Fizz as a statement-making beverage that has consistently maintained a distinct and outstanding identity. Despite inspiring numerous similar drinks in the market, Appy Fizz's unmatched innovation and quality have set it apart.

Through the brand redesign, Parle Agro aims to celebrate Appy Fizz's exceptional quality and bring a disruptive new look to the sparkling fruit-flavored drink category, ushering in a new era of growth and disruption. The brand is looking to further elevate the Appy Fizz experience and maintain its position as a leading innovator in the market.

The new packaging has been designed and conceptualized by Pentagram. Speaking on the new design Harry Pearce, Partner, Pentagram Design Ltd. said, “The essential idea for the Appy Fizz design was to modernize and to create a more visually arresting identity and bottle shape moving the brand away from the huge number of copycats. We re-addressed the emphasis giving the word ‘Appy’ equal prominence to ‘Fizz’ and employed a distinctive font with custom elements. The design retains the brand equity invested in black, white and red with a nod to the apple in the red dot.”

Kriti Sanon and Jr. NTR, the charismatic actors who are Appy Fizz's brand ambassadors, are seen in the new campaigns with fresh packaging of the brand - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2LCks-JzwQ

Actor  R Madhavan has signed an agreement with Jos Alukkas to be their pan-Indian brand ambassador. South Indian actress Keerthy Suresh will continue as the brand ambassador of the leading jewellery group. Both the artists have signed the agreement at a function held in Mumbai.

The company said they chose Madhavan in a bid to disseminate the brand philosophy of the group across India.

Jose Alukka, Chairman of the group, said Keerthy Suresh will continue to represent the gold and diamond brands of Jos Alukkas.

“The recognition that both the stars have won across India is expected to contribute to the future campaigns of Jos Alukkas, which has been functioning on the strong pillars of dedication and ethos for the last 58 years,” the company said.

Madhavan said he is happy to collaborate with a brand which stands as the synonym of honesty in business. Ms. Keerthy Suresh says Jos Alukkas satisfies the rising demands of women in the new world.

Wunderman Thompson India has won the brand building mandate for Tata Astrum Super from the house of Tata Steel. This retail brand is the latest in a long line of brands from the Tata Steel stable that have been built and nurtured by the agency.

Tata Steel’s association with Wunderman Thompson India stretches over 90 years with the agency currently handling brand building duties for Tata Steel Corporate as also for retail brands like Tata Tiscon, Tata Shaktee, Tata Kosh, Tata Pravesh & Tata Wiron out of Kolkata.

The agency will need to give the brand a competitive edge so it can command a premium over branded and unorganized players, forge bonds with channel partners and connect with end users.

Commenting on the new business win, Vijay Jacob Parakkal, Senior VP & Managing Partner, Wunderman Thompson, Kolkata, said, “Tata Steel and Wunderman Thompson go back many decades. We welcome Tata Astrum Super into the WT brand family and thank Tata Steel for its continued faith in our capabilities. We are confident of doing justice to the mandate we have been given and look forward to taking the brand to new heights.”

The Good Glamm Group and actor Akshay Kumar have come together to create a joint venture that will launch holistic personal care and wellness products for men. Both Akshay Kumar and the Good Glamm Group will invest capital and work together to scale the business.

The joint venture has been developed over a shared vision of creating holistic personal care and wellness products formulated using active, natural and efficacious ingredients with a high degree of innovation not previously seen in India.

The joint venture will leverage the Good Glamm Group’s content-creator-commerce-community moat to drive DTC revenues through 200 million MAUs of Good Media Co and over 1 million influencers of Good Creator Co; in addition to the R&D strengths and offline distribution network of Good Brands Co across over 150 cities in India.

Speaking on this partnership, actor Akshay Kumar said, “I have always wanted to create natural yet efficacious products based on all the learnings I have had and practised in holistic wellness. The Good Glamm Group has built some of India’s largest and most loved DTC beauty & personal care brands and is very unique in its content-creator-commerce strategy. I am really excited about the products we will be developing and the business that we will be building together.”

Adding to this, Darpan Sanghvi, Group Founder & CEO, The Good Glamm Group says “Akshay epitomizes hard work, discipline and age-defying looks based on natural principles of holistic wellness. We couldn't think of a more authentic, trusted and knowledgeable partner to develop and launch this unique product line with.”

Siyaram’s has recently launched its first influencer-led campaign with youth icon Aparshakti Khurana. The campaign was conceptualized to persuasively promote the brand's classy and in-style range among young adults who prefer to look their best anytime they attend a special occasion.

To portray it effectively, the brand adopted an interesting marketing route by 1st launching a teaser on the brand’s social media platform ‘Aparshakti is in a dilemma’ to instill curiosity about the news. Followed by the influencer video that captured the actor at his film set in an all-decked-up attire of Siyaram after completing a shoot for his cousin’s wedding as instructed by his mother. The video beautifully captures its communication about how the actor trusts Siyaram’s when it comes to looking "The Best" at any wedding or event.

Prashant Awasthi, General Manager Marketing, Siyaram Silk Mills Ltd, said, “Curiosity marketing has the potential to entice untapped audience segments in today's world. Similarly, our intent with this influencer-led campaign was to tap into the younger segment of our TG and persuade customers to learn more about our range and offerings. With this campaign, we aim to convey our message to the youth, by roping in Aparshakti Khurana as his synergy blends well with our brand. With this inquisitive marketing approach, we were able to launch the campaign in style and with an interesting angle.”

Aparshakti Khurana, Actor, said, “Siyaram’s is not a new brand for my closet, it has been my partner for multiple events and celebrations before. Collaborating with the brand for its first-ever influencer-led campaign was a great pleasure. It is a delight to see Indian-origin brands like Siyaram’s marking their presence felt global and excelling in the fashion industry with utmost dedication.”

D2C beauty brand SUGAR Cosmetics reported a 70 per cent growth in FY22 sales. In the current fiscal, it has logged in over 90 per cent growth. And to continue this momentum, the brand has planned to double its marketing budget in FY24, CBO Suchit Sikaria said in an exclusive chat with e4m.

“Our expectations are to see the revenue grow two-fold in FY24. We aspire for 70-90% growth in the next fiscal. To achieve that, our overall marketing budget may go double in the coming fiscal year,” Sikaria said.

As per media reports, Sugar posted Rs 222 crore of operating revenue during the fiscal year ending March 2022, a nearly 75% increase compared to FY21.

Digital AdEx share

Fintech occupies 10 per cent of Sugar’s digital AdEx, said Sikaria. “The AdEx on fintech should go up in the future in terms of percentage as this platform is more controllable and dynamic and this cost is pretty comparable to other platforms (Google and Meta),” he noted.

As per Sikaria, the brand’s biggest advantage is that it spends on marketing on fintech platforms and that no one channel has the ability to scale up and return consistently.

“Each platform has a threshold. You have to leverage all platforms according to your needs and changing consumer dynamics. Marketing is primarily a balancing act.”
Asked how much the company spends on Google, Meta and other platforms, Sikaria said: “I may not be able to share the numbers, but proportion wise Google and Meta get about 40 and 40 per cent shares in digital AdEx, respectively. Fintech platforms get 10 per cent of the company’s digital AdEx, the rest 10 per cent is spent on other channels.” The company spends a sizable amount of AdEx on telecom operators and its own eCommerce channel as well, he added.

All three platforms deliver almost similar ROIs, he further said.

On fintech apps, the company’s marketing strategy revolves around discounts, coupons and prizes. “We recently launched two jackpots on PayTm. Over 70 per cent of the participants in the jackpots were new customers. Surprisingly, some of the winners of our make-up kits were men,” he quipped.

Asked how the company is utilizing the fintech platform's data for personalization, Sakaria explained, “We try to understand our consumers based on their transaction data on fintech apps. Then the offers are launched based on consumer cohorts and their demographic profiles.”

TV for overall branding

Sharing insights on being an omnichannel brand with a presence in traditional and modern trade, he said: “We have our own retail stores and an eCommerce channel as well. A sizable portion of our marketing budget goes to TV, mainly to represent the brand overall, not for D2C revenue.”

“As long as you get the ROI, you continue to invest in advertising and promotion. Instead of long-term investments, we have planned to spend in phases by figuring out what works and what does not for our products,” Sikaria explains.