I love sugar-free yogurt, says Shah Rukh Khan as he and Deepika Padukone plan a heist in their recently released much-awaited blockbluster film Pathaan. This one line by Shah Rukh has, arguably, created more buzz for dairy brand Epigamia than any marketing strategy would ever have. Same is the case with Emaar Properties. The actor has a big fan following in Dubai and so an association with the film for a scene in the country was an opportunity not to be missed for the real estate company.While Shah Rukh was shown relishing Epigamia for nearly 40 seconds, Emaar Properties has been featured during a fight scene in the spy thriller flick.

Brand integration has always been an interesting channel for brands to make a mark in the audience minds who watch their favourite stars in the theatres with undivided attention.

In Pathaan’s case, feels Lloyd Mathias, Business Strategist and Angel Investor, the association will create an impactful recall value for the two brands in the minds of consumers. "A very positive rub-off happens to the brand when it has associated itself with a movie that has stars like Shah Rukh, Deepika, Salman and John. It will be a lasting product in the consumer's mind. Such associations bring a lot of value for the brands as consumers have an active mind while watching movies in theatres."

Sharing how such associations help brands, Nisha Sampath, Brand Consultant and Managing Partner, Bright Angles Consulting, explained, "Today people are noticing product placement and people talk about it. People are aware and that also helps brands to get into conversation into a larger cultural context. There is some degree of awareness that is getting generated at a much more value for money preposition than taking the celebrity themselves, signing up a contract. So it’s a very cost-effective way to leverage upon."

She added, “The integration can be done in a way that it can get the brand into pop culture. One great example is ‘Munni badnaam hui’ song that used the name of Jhandu Balm.

So as Pathaan goes on to have a dream run at the box office with a collection of Rs 700 crore so far and with people standing in queues to catch the spy thriller, we are sure the two brands are enjoying the spotlight and their share of fame.

Talking about advertisers’ interest in the movie, Rajender Singh Jyala, Chief Programming Officer - INOX Leisure Ltd, said, “The release of Pathaan is not only drawing audiences to the big screen, but also a significant number of advertisers are looking to tap upon the hype around the movie. We are witnessing a renewed rigour among the advertisers, which is only getting better with the release of this film. The entire country is looking forward to this much anticipated release, which is an absolutely encouraging sign, not only for the cinemas, but also for the entire film industry. The way the Bollywood craze has come back to life, augurs well for us, and we are sure that the content line-up in the near future would sustain this hysteria."

Meanwhile, talking about how the film is being loved by all, Gautam Dutta, CEO, PVR Ltd., said, “While we had a phenomenal opening of Pathaan with advances of close to 5 lakh admissions for the first long weekend. We expect the film to surpass this figure in the first day of the release itself. The movie has a national appeal, including south India where it is being dubbed in Tamil and Telugu. Post the pandemic, this is the first original Hindi movie that has generated such a good response. Dubbed Hindi versions of regional movies have been doing well though.”

“While regional movies performed exceptionally well post-pandemic, the underperformance of Hindi films due to multiple factors did impact the industry-level collections.  The trend is likely to change with a robust pipeline of Hindi Movies in 2023. Keeping in mind the buzz index and the star cast of the mega-blockbuster movie, brands have shown appreciable interest to advertise. Tent pole movies like this will certainly give an upswing to cinema advertising in the next fiscal to reach pre-pandemic levels,” he added.

Devang Sampat, CEO of Cinépolis India, echoed the sentiment. “Pathaan is being received extremely well by audiences. We have seen record advance bookings and the first reviews are quite positive. We have had a number of big Bollywood hits this year, starting with The Kashmir Files and then the likes of Brahamastra, Bhool Bhulaiya 2, Drishyam 2 among others. Having said that, this movie is expected to create new benchmarks for the industry.”

Emami Limited has announced the unaudited financial results of the company for the third quarter and nine months ended 31st December 2022.

The company’s consolidated net sales at Rs. 975 cr grew by 2%; Revenue from Operations at Rs. 983 cr grew by 1%.PAT at Rs. 237 cr grew by 8%.

EBIDTA at Rs. 294 crore contracted by 14% due to inflationary input costs, inclusion of new subsidiary costs, and strategic outlays on distribution expansion in rural, digital and modern trade channels, the company said.

“During the quarter, demand patterns for the FMCG sector remained sluggish, with rural markets experiencing continued demand pressure. Further, a warmer winter season across the country impacted sales even more. In the given macroeconomic context, Net sales at ₹975 crore grew by 2% and Revenues at ₹983 crore grew by 1% during the quarter translating into a healthy 3 year CAGR of 7% compared to the pre-pandemic period,” they shared in a statement.

Domestic business grew by 1% during the quarter translating into a 3 year CAGR of 6%. While rural markets remained muted, urban centric new age channels like Modern Trade continued to grow strongly by 20% and e-commerce by 45% during the quarter. Both Modern Trade and eCommerce put together now contributes to 18.4% of domestic revenues against 13.8% in Q3 last year

International business grew by 7% during the quarter translating into a 3 year CAGR of 13% inspite of several key markets facing geopolitical challenges. The growth has been mainly driven by strong performances in markets of MENA, CIS, Bangladesh & SEA.

During the quarter Gross margins at 65.9% contracted by 150 basis points due to inflationary pressure and favourable portfolio mix last year. EBIDTA at Rs. 294 crore declined by 14% over previous year due to inclusion of new subsidiary costs, and strategic outlays on distribution expansion in rural, digital and modern trade channels.  However, Profit after tax at Rs. 237 crore grew by 8% over previous year.

Harsha V Agarwal, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Emami Limited said, “The environment has been challenging due to high inflation, consumption slowdown, poor rural growth and a warmer winter. In the given circumstances, we have delivered satisfactory performance with a 7% revenue growth on a 3 year CAGR basis in Q3FY23. We continue to invest strongly behind our power brands, innovations, channel expansions and distribution optimizations. We believe that these sustained efforts will help us achieve sustainable and profitable growth”

Mohan Goenka, Vice Chairman and Whole-Time Director, Emami Limited said, “Notwithstanding the muted consumption patterns, our focus on innovation remains strong. Our new launches and digital first NPD’s have contributed 4% to our Domestic net sales during the quarter and new age channels viz. Modern trade, eCommerce and D2C continue to grow in excess of 20%. Our International business also reported 7% quarterly growth despite tough market challenges in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.”

FMCG giant Marico Limited has announced a 3% rise in its consolidated revenue in Q3FY23. The company's domestic volume growth shows resilience at 4% and its gross and EBITDA margin has expanded more than 100 bps sequentially, according to its financial results. Its EBITDA and PAT are up 6% YOY.

Marico's advertising and promotion spends was at 8.9% of sales, up 3% sequentially, said the company.

In Q3FY23, Revenue from Operations grew by 3% YoY to ₹2,470 crores with underlying volume growth of 4% in the domestic business and constant currency growth of 8% in the international business.

"During the quarter, the FMCG sector in India showed some signs of a gradual improvement in overall demand trends, in addition to the festive spirit and oncoming winter season providing some fillip to specific categories," read the company's official release.

Saugata Gupta, MD & CEO, commented, “The quarter was characterized by improving trends in topline and earnings growth as the domestic business witnessed emerging signs of a gradual demand revival, while the international business stood its ground amidst macro headwinds in some markets. It was reassuring to see continued market share and penetration gains in most of our key portfolios and sustained growth momentum in new franchises. As the operating environment is expected to evolve favorably, we will aim to maintain an upward trajectory across growth parameters in the quarters ahead through consistent investment in our brands and focus on execution.”

Connected TV is a huge opportunity for brands to reach a vast pool of influential consumers with high purchasing power, according to a power-packed panel of experts at the e4m TV First Conference. The topic of discussion was  ‘TV + Digital – An Advertiser's View’.

The panellists comprised Punit Dharamsi, Vice President -Marketing, AMFI; Pradnya Popade, Head of Marketing and Communications – Samsonite; Samir Sethi, VP & Head of Brand Marketing – Policybazaar.com; Shilpa Desai, EVP & Head, Marketing – HDFC ERGO General Insurance and Anooj Kapoor, Chief Creative Officer, Dangal2. The session was chaired by Nikhil Kumar, Vice President, India & South East Asia – mediaSmart.

Initiating the conversation, Kumar pointed out how consumers switch between TV, mobile, laptops and many more in today’s multi-screen world.

Sharing his views on advertising memos, Sethi noted: “Whenever we are watching television, it is no longer undivided attention that we are giving to television. We are constantly fiddling with our phones – texting friends and colleagues on WhatsApp, answering work-related emails, looking at Instagram reels and a bunch of other things. 

"On the positive side, the phone is completely unengaged because your primary medium of entertainment at that point in time is the big screen (television). So for example, if you are a digital brand and a consumer likes your proposition through advertising, they don’t really have to wait for their next store visit to respond to your communication. They might just pick up their phone and log on to your website and download your app which is exactly what we see.

"We plot the spot data of our TV campaigns along with our website traffic data to figure out what’s happening after we are running ads but also to dig deeper and figure out what components of the media plans are working better than the others for instance what channels, time bands, days of the week and also what creatives are working better. So, when we advertise on television, apart from the long-term brand-building benefits, we also get immediate ROIs. Therefore it acts as a good performance medium apart from being a long-term brand-building medium.”

Sharing her perspective on how the digital and linear world is evolving, Popade commented: “We have reached out to almost 25 per cent of Samsonite affluent audience through FIFA, KBC, Sony Liv advertisements through connected TV because our audience is mainly those who are having 40,000 plus devices. That’s how we could map the data and connected TV is giving you that particular data. Today you can see whether it is a small tab or a 40 or a 65-inch TV.”

Dharamsi noted, “We use each and every medium that is available to us to send out our message. For us, TV gives the reach and digital helps us to create reminder medium, recall, engagement and then get into their consideration set. We use each medium to their strength and try to convert that into consideration for our category.”

Moving further into the conversation, Desai said, “One per cent of GDP is the amount of insurance that gets sold. 99 per cent of the population is not insured. As we understand, television is a very laid-back medium. Digital is a hyperactive medium. Connected television is a very sweet spot between the two and as marketers, you need to nuanced about what is the role of each of these devices in your overall life and hence, the opportunity for advertisers to create some kind of impact.

"What digital has allowed us to do is put a lot of accountability in the way we spend and I think connected televisions give you that sweet spot. If you combine the nuances that digital allows you to leverage along with the medium like television which is one to many, you have a great opportunity to create very compelling advertising provided you understand what’s the play for it.”

From a content standpoint, Kapoor conveyed, “So far as the regular television is concerned, we all know the rules of the game, from an advertiser’s and a content creator’s perspective. In our market, largely soaps and comedy are in the GC genre popular and mass brands advertise on television. I think there are a lot of opportunities for small businesses because sometimes in connected TV, you can approach only a local market. I also see a great opportunity in the digital space in terms of curating specific content to block competition.”

Rungta Steel of Rungta Mines Limited (RML) has unveiled its third television commercial focusing on one of the core facets of their brand and company- lasting relationships.



Starring actors Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor, the actors are seen in an exchange where Ranbir is seen discussing the standout features of what Alia assumes to be about their relationship but turns out it was Rungta Steel TMT Bar that Ranbir talks about- one that is long-lasting, strong, shock-absorbent and stays by your side. The TVC ends with the tagline ‘Ekdum Solid’ indicating the presence of Rungta Steel TMT Bars. 

Arvind Kumar, Senior GM and Head, Sales & Marketing (TMT), said, “The third part of our TVC campaign was conceptualized to communicate the key role of Rungta Steel TMT Bar and services that has enabled our customers to confidently use our product in a plethora of applications. The core thought for the campaign was to bring to focus our relationship with all our stakeholders that is at the heart of everything we do”.

Rungta Steel TMT Bars are meticulously designed using the latest cutting-edge technology in state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities. The product undergoes stringent quality control systems ensuring unparalleled consistency, strength, durability and seamless workability. 

Having been in the media and entertainment industry for 30 years, and having visited India in 27 of them, Rob Gilby, CEO, Dentsu APAC, says there has never been a better moment for the country.

Gilby was speaking at the unveiling of the Dentsu-e4m Report 2023, released in Mumbai on February 2. He delivered the keynote address on ‘Creating value in the Web3 digital Economy’ and how we could create value in the Web3 digital economy and support India's goal of becoming a $1-trillion digital economy by 2025.

Remarking that India was more the size and scale of a continent than a country, Gilby spoke about how the government’s insistence on pushing the idea of ‘Digital India’ over the last six or seven years had transformed the country, and coupled with the availability of cheap 4G data, with vast changes in the digital ecosystems of news, entertainment, commerce, payments and much more.

“You not only pioneered success within India but became a model for markets around the world. When 5G launched late last year, I got even more excited because this is the start of your next phase of digital transformation, one where I think you're going to lead the world at scale. And so 5G is not just a backbone infrastructure technology, it enables different experiences and enables different technologies to connect with consumers,” he said.

Noting that Dentsu helps brands make human connections “through amazing creativity, technology and a deep understanding of the emerging media space,” Gilby went on to get to the heart of his speech, taking the audience into the metaverse and Web3. 

“Everybody has a slightly different description of the metaverse and the metaverse has gone through a standard Gartner Hype curve. Various people are at different stages on that hype curve. Some are getting to the peak of the expectations, some have gone over that hill into this solution but beyond that comes the sustainable development of any hype curve where the reality checks in and people understand what their role is, where we're at and how to experiment,” he said.

Gilby asserted that the metaverse is the future of all digital media and commerce and the successor to the current Internet. “Some of you may not believe that, but we're at the start of the journey to do that. Many people at the start of the internet did not believe that it would play the role that it did. And we're at the start of that journey now. But there are some different traits about the metaverse and the role of web three in this next phase.”

Calling web3 the backbone, Gilby opined the metaverse is the presentation layer of web3, and a few tenants were slightly different to those of the current internet.

“The first is value exchange. We hear a lot of talk about tokens, fungible tokens non-fungible tokens, but it's really the smart contracts that enable transactions (of those tokens) from one person to another person without the need of intermediaries in a safe and secure environment,” he said, noting the smart contract systems that are built on top of blockchain are enabling rapid interchange at scale. 

“Another important differentiation is self-sovereign identity. We've grown up in digital economies of the last five to 10 years but our identity was managed by large organizations, amazing organizations that will still continue to exist. But the self-sovereign identity allows the individual to have their identity back and have it protected and to control their data and to choose which applications they engage with and how they interact,” said Gilby.

And naturally, he said, underlying all of this are the decentralized technologies and obviously, the blockchain is the backbone of that. “For brands, one of the questions I often get asked is, yep, that's all very cool and exciting for a lot of the engineers but what does it mean for me? Well, we have to answer that question. We have to think about what it means to consumers. How would they engage with the metaverse?” he pointed out

He said many consumers are familiar with gaming and web 2.0 Plus gaming platforms like Roblox or games like Fortnite are a first step into the world of the metaverse. They are web 2.0 versions, but many of the web 3.0 versions are offering richer, more immersive experiences either on a gaming platform or the web.

“Now a lot of that relies on virtual reality, which requires the coming together of some physical technologies, and the actual production of the immersive worlds that people are entering,” he said, going into the minutiae of bringing together both elements of the technology and experiences.

Gilby also spoke about the increasing popularity of wearable devices and how interfaces between consumers, their environments, the media they consume and the brands they interact with are constantly evolving, and how Dentsu was empowering companies and advertisers to leverage these emerging technologies into a cohesive ecosystem for brands and their consumers to engage, exchange and co-exist.

Muthoot Finance has signed on actor Madhuri Dixit as its brand ambassador. The brand also continues to have Amitabh Bachchan as their brand ambassador as well.

Sharing the news about this new association, Alexander George Muthoot, Joint Managing Director of The Muthoot Group said, “We are very delighted to welcome Madhuri Dixit to The Muthoot Group family as our Brand Ambassador. We are confident that her association with us will greatly help in taking the brand to much greater heights. We continue to have Amitabh Bachchan as our brand ambassador as well.”

He further added, “Madhuri has demonstrated a strong connection with diverse audiences through her extraordinary performances, for a long period of time. She continues to amaze people through her new roles as a producer and a reality show judge. Her immense success and goodwill can be attributed to her work ethic, dedication, integrity, and uncompromising values. Our brand resonates with her on-screen legacy and off-screen image, which makes her a natural and cultural fit for our brand.

On the association, Madhuri said, "Muthoot Finance is India’s Most Trusted Financial Services Brand as certified by The Brand Trust Report 2022 and I am happy to be associated with them. They are a brand with a strong legacy of doing business with values and crores of Indians have transformed their lives after availing a Gold Loan from Muthoot Finance.”

“Last year, I had the privilege of knowing about some life-changing, real-life success stories of Muthoot Finance gold loan customers. I look forward to being a part of this wonderful journey yet again,” she added.